Hamisu Mohammad
22 December 2011
The Royal Dutch Shell is shutting down its huge 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) Bonga oilfield off the Nigerian coast after a leak occurred while loading a tanker yesterday, the firm said in a statement.
The Anglo-Dutch oil major said “less than 40,000 barrels of oil” had leaked into the ocean. The flow of oil had now halted, a spokesman said.
The leak occurred while a tanker was loading oil from Shell’s Bonga facility, about 120 kilometres off the coast of the West African nation, according to the statement.
Shell’s pipelines in Nigeria’s onshore Niger delta have spilled several times, which the company blames on sabotage attacks and oil theft.
Bonga accounts for around 10 percent of monthly oil flows from Nigeria.
Shell Nigeria Country Chair, Mutiu Sunmonu said: “We are sorry this leak has happened. As soon as we became aware of it, we stopped the flow of oil and mobilised our own resources, as well as industry expertise, to ensure its effects are minimized.
“It is important to stress that this was not a well control incident of any sort, and to make clear that no one has been injured. Our focus now is on a speedy and effective clean-up.”
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