Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) assessed its operations for 2014 and announced that it lost 53.4 million barrels of oil valued $2.4 million to theft and production shut in.
Afohron Sekobe, head of Right of Way Management gave the Breakdown to include 13.5 million barrels of crude oil from its joint venture loss owing to theft in 2014 while 40.2 million barrels was to shut-in production.
The loss which impacted negatively on accruals into federal government treasury in 2014, depicts the alarming rate of pipeline vandalism in the tumultuous Niger Delta region of the country.
In the year alone, 92 percent of all oil spills were as a result of sabotage by crude oil thieves prompting SPDC to replace 900 kilometers of pipelines in the Region and 64 percent of identified spill sites remediated and certified.
Another challenge in the region Is encroachment on right of way, and worsened by the increasing population beyond the company’s control
despite warning signs and erection of perimeter fences.Manager, Government and Community Relations in Bayelsa State, Alaye Dokubo sees synergy among all stakeholder groups including the media as antidote to incidences of pipeline vandalism, crude oil theft and encroachment on right of way.
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