Shell cleans up crude oil spill after pipeline blast

LAGOS (AFP) – Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell said it had stepped up environmental cleansing and repairing a pipeline that exploded in Nigeria, but could not immediately confirm if it has reduced or eliminated the loss of 35,000 barrels a day.

“The latest information from our head office in Port Harcourt is that we are intensifying the cleaning of spilled crude and to deliver relief materials to affected and displaced people in the communities,” a company spokesman who spoke to AFP said.
“Some of the relief materials we are distributing to the affected people are food, water and clothing materials,” said the spokesman, who demanded anonymity.

Limited production resumed Saturday in the affected part of the Niger Delta, but the company maintained a state of force majeure, a measure allowing oil firms to breach their supply contracts in very serious situations.

AFP