Offshore staff

THE HAGUE, the Netherlands – Shell says it has completed the cleanup of a leak just before Christmas from the deepwater Bonga oil field offshore Nigeria.

Operator Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Co. (SNEPCo) shut down production when a leak occurred on one of three export loading lines as oil was being transferred from the Bonga FPSO to a loading tanker.

Shell Nigeria Country Chair, Mutiu Sunmonu, said: “While investigation into the cause of the leak continues, we have isolated the faulty line, which was the only one of its type in the Bonga field, and reinforced our asset integrity and safety program. This, together with additional inspection testing and monitoring, is what gives us the confidence that it is safe to restart.

“Furthermore, satellite and aerial imagery has confirmed that the Bonga oil leak could not have reached coastlines in the eastern Niger Delta, as some media articles have suggested. We were disappointed to see images of a third party spill, which appeared to be from a vessel, in the middle of the area that we had previously cleaned up.

“Oil from the Bonga leak had largely dispersed by December 25 due to the integrated efforts of SNEPCo, the Nigerian government and our industry partners in the application of dispersants, and natural processes of dispersal and evaporation.”

The company is taking samples of the third-party spill in order to establish that oil on the ach is not from Bonga.

Juts after Christmas, Shell Petroleum Development Co. of Nigeria (SPDC) resumed production at the shallow offshore EA Field, on completion of scheduled inspection, engineering and maintenance works on the FPSO.

The vessel was shut in on November 9 for this program, which included repairs to the soft yoke mooring platform, and relief valve recertification.

01/09/2012