Nigeria’s Trans Niger Pipeline (TNP) has been fully restored and is working normally, after it was ruptured by a blast last week, Renaissance spokesperson, Tony Okonedo, told Reuters on Tuesday.
The pipeline with a capacity of around 450,000 barrels per day, is one of two conduits that export Bonny Light crude from Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer.
Oil output through the TNP was rerouted to an alternative line after blasts ruptured the main link on March 17, according to Nigerian oil consortium Renaissance Group, which now owns Shell’s former onshore subsidiary that operates the pipeline.
Earlier this month, Shell announced the completion of the sale of its Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) to Renaissance, as announced January 16, 2024.
With the deal, Renaissance now controls SPDC’s 30 per cent stake in the joint venture with the government-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Company (55 per cent), Total Exploration and Production Nigeria Ltd (10 per cent) and Agip Energy and Natural Resources (Nigeria) Limited (5 per cent).
A day after the attack, on March 18, the federal government declared a state of emergency in Rivers State. The rupture of the TNP had halted crude movements to Nigeria’s Bonny Light export terminal.
A fire had occurred on the pipeline at the border of the Kpor and Bodo communities, and the pipeline’s management shut down the affected section, the Rivers State police said. The pipeline had been the target of repeated oil theft, vandalism and sabotage in the past.
Crude was later rerouted through an alternative line, a spokesperson for Renaissance said, after the alternative conduit passed an integrity test on Wednesday and subsequently crude was diverted as repairs continued on the main line.
The Renaissance Group is owned by Aradel Energy, First E&P, Waltersmith, ND Western and an international energy group, Petrolin.
Meanwhile, Oil prices fell on Tuesday after Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy agreed to a truce with Russia covering the Black Sea and energy infrastructure, though crude losses were limited by the prospect of global supply tightening due to threatened U.S. tariffs on countries buying Venezuelan production.
Brent crude futures were down 15 cents, or 0.21 per cent, at $72.85 a barrel as US West Texas Intermediate crude fell 25 cents, or 0.36 per cent, to $68.86.
Zelenskiy said the truce was effective immediately on Tuesday, but added that he would seek more weapons from US President Donald Trump and sanctions against Russia if Moscow broke the deals.
The United States reached separate agreements on Tuesday with Ukraine and Russia to ensure safe navigation in the Black Sea and to implement a ban on attacks by the two countries on each other’s energy facilities.
Emmanuel Addeh
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