Market News

By Dare Olawin

Nigeria’s daily oil output might be affected following an explosion that rocked a section of the Trans Niger Pipeline in Bodo Community, Gokana Local Government Area of Rivers State.

The pipeline is owned by Renaissance Africa Energy Holdings. A media person in the Renaissance Renaissance Africa Energy Holdings said the company responded to an incident but could not confirm the cause of the blast.

The TNP transports 450,000 barrels of crude oil per day to the Bonny Export Terminal, using a pipeline network.

Renaissance Africa Energy Holdings just completed the landmark transaction between itself and Shell to acquire the entire equity holding in the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria.

Our correspondent gathered that the incident occurred late Monday night, igniting a fire that had been raging through the mangrove areas.

It was gathered that the incident occurred near Bodo-Bonny Road, which is currently under construction by Julius Berger Nigeria Plc through a joint funding partnership between Nigeria LNG Limited and the Federal Government of Nigeria.

A Renaissance spokesman, who did not want to be mentioned because he had yet to get approval to speak with the press, said the incident is being investigated.

According to him, the cause of the explosion is not yet known. “We don’t know if it is an explosion or not, but we are responding to the report of an incident in the operation. Our response is a regulator-led joint investigation team. We are not going to speculate,” the media person said.

Renaissance Africa Energy Holdings is a consortium consisting of four successful Nigerian independent oil and gas companies: ND Western Limited, Aradel Holdings Plc, FIRST Exploration and Petroleum Development Company Limited, and the Waltersmith Group, each with considerable operations experience in the Niger Delta, and Petrolin, an international energy company with global trading experience and a pan African outlook.

Although the fire has been put out, there are concerns that the damage done by the blast could affect the nation’s crude earnings by reducing average daily oil output.

There were speculations that the explosion was triggered by aggrieved political thugs in Rivers State.

Confirming the incident in a statement, the Rivers State Police Public Relations Officer, Grace Iringe-Koko, said the fire was noticed on Monday night during a security patrol.

According to her, Renaissance was immediately altered and the company shut down the affected pipeline and activated safety measures.

While saying there was no further threat to residents or the environment, the PPRO revealed that two individuals have been arrested for questioning as part of an ongoing investigation into the cause of the incident.

“The Rivers State Police Command has commenced a thorough investigation to determine the cause of the fire. In connection with this, two individuals have been taken in for questioning as part of efforts to uncover any potential act of sabotage,” she said.

Iringe-Koko assured residents of the police’s commitment to ensuring safety and bringing those responsible for any wrongdoing to justice.

Meanwhile, an official of Renaissance the company is putting efforts in top gear to stop Nigeria from losing significant revenue.