Again, Aiteo announces closure of Nembe Creek Trunk Line


Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Production Company have announced it was shutting down the Nembe Creek Trunk Line (NCTL), few days after it was reopened for operations.

A fire outbreak last month had forced closure of the pipeline by the company before it declared a ‘force majuere’ on all operations through the pipeline.

Aiteo spokesperson, Ndiana Mathew, had last Friday in an email to journalists announced the company was restoring normal crude oil transport operations through the pipeline.

According to him, the reopening comes after successful completion of repairs on all reported leaks on the pipeline by the company’s Emergency Pipeline Repair teams.

However, there was a twist when on Sunday, he announced the re-closure of the pipeline following reports of two fresh leak points along the line near Awoba Riser Manifold in Rivers State.

The Aiteo spokesman blamed the new leakage to illegal activities of oil thieves along the pipeline in the area.

“Our emergency response process was immediately activated, and containment boom deployed to limit oil spread on bodies of water whilst efforts to identify (the) cause of incident/repair has been initiated,” he said.

“Consequently, all injectors have been advised in accordance with NCTL shutdown procedure to shut-in production into the NCTL immediately. Appropriate Oil Leakage/Spillage Notification Report will follow shortly to DPR/NOSDRA (Department of Petroleum Resources/National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA),” he added.

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