11 June 2013, Newswires – The Royal Dutch Shell has lifted a force majeure measure on liquefied natural gas, LNG, exports from Bonny Island which was in place for almost a month.
The force majeure measure was lifted on Monday, the Anglo-Dutch supermajor’s Nigerian joint venture Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC, said on Tuesday.
The measure was imposed at Nigeria LNG on 15 May after Shell halted its supplies to the Bonny Island facility over a reported leak.
SPDC said on Tuesday that the subsequent investigation had found the leak to have been caused by sabotage.
“Some 240,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day…was deferred over the shut-in period. SPDC has now repaired the line and resumed gas production.”
SPDC said at the time of the stoppage that it was stopping gas supplies to the 22 million tonne-a-year terminal because of a leak along the Eastern Gas Gathering System near Awoba in Rivers State.
About 1.5 billion standard cubic feet of gas per day has been shut in as a result of the stoppage.
Shell said at the time it was still able to export between 100 million and 200 million standard cubic feet per day from Soku via the GTS1 line to Nigeria LNG for a limited time.
The force majeure came barely a month after the last such move halting supplies to the plant was lifted on 18 April after a hiatus of more than two months.
On 5 February, a force majeure was activated after a leak on a major gas trunkline that was later repaired.
