Shell declares force majeure, shuts in 1.5b scfpd due leaky pipeline

THE Shell Petroleum Development Company Limited (SPDC) announced Thursday that it had  shut in about 1.5 billion standard cubic feet of gas per day (scfpd) from its gas gathering facilities in Rivers State.

The company said in a statement from Shell Headquarters at The Hague, Netherlands,  it had declared force majeure on gas supply to the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG).

The action was occasioned by a reported leak along the Eastern Gas Gathering System (EGGS-1), which led to the shutdown of its Soku and Gbaran Ubie gas export.

According to the statement, the force majeure on gas supplies to Nigeria LNG came into effect on Wednesday.

'For a limited time and subject to capacity limitations, we are able to export about 100-200MMscfpd from Soku via the GTS1,' it stated.

Shell had last week announced the commencement of test on the potentials of five gas wells in line with the implementation of the Gbaran-Ubie Phase 2 project. The exercise, according to Corporate Media Relations Manager, SPDC, Tony Okonedo, involved brief simulated production to determine the potentials of the wells and flaring of released gas in isolated locations.

On completion, Okonedo said, the wells would be hooked up to the Gbaran-Ubie central processing facility, which would process the gas for domestic and export markets.