ABUJA, July 11 (Reuters) - Shell Nigeria shut itsTrans Niger pipeline on Thursday after a leak was detected,barely a week after the company re-opened the pipeline followingthe repair of some crude theft points.
"Details of this latest incident, including cause and sizeof spill, are unclear at the moment, but the TNP has beenvariously targeted by crude oil thieves in recent months andshut down several times to enable the removal of theft points,"Shell Nigeria spokesman Tony Okonedo said in a statement.
"A total of about 150,000 barrels per day of oil have beendeferred."
Shell said on Friday that it had re-opened the Trans NigerPipeline (TNP), running through Nigeria's oil-producing NigerDelta region, after repairing a valve point and removing oiltheft connections.
But Okonedo said by telephone that a new leak on a differentsection of the pipeline meant it had to be shut down again,adding that some oil had been spilt. His statement said theShell Petroleum Development Corporation, a Shell-run jointventure majority owned by Nigeria's government, was "mobilizingto respond as quickly as possible to the spill."
The last time the TNP was shut, a local environmental NGOestimated 6,000 barrels of oil had been spilt.
The area that the TNP crosses, Ogoniland, has beendevastated by repeated oil spills. Environmental groups arguethat Shell's 50-year-old infrastructure in the area is decrepitand must be shut down or replaced.
Shell rejects that, arguing that the spills are caused bythieves hacking into pipelines, a major criminal enterprise withcollusion from security forces that the company cannot prevent.
Shell has been pushing the government to make greater efforts to combat oil theft, known locally as bunkering, which it blames for the loss of an estimated 150,000 bpd across the industry in Nigeria and for repeated oil spills and fires.
