Nigeria's Trans Niger oil pipeline bursts, spills crude

16/5/2025 6:10

Nigeria's Trans

Niger Pipeline, a major oil artery transporting crude from

onshore oilfields to the Bonny export terminal, burst and

spilled oil into B-Dere community in Ogoniland, an environmental

rights group said on Thursday.



This is the second incident affecting the Trans Niger

Pipeline in two months. In March, the pipeline was shut after a

blast that caused fire.



Nnimmo Bassey, executive director of Health of Mother Earth

Foundation, said the spill which occurred on May 6 was yet to be

stopped, adding that the slow response showed a lack of care for

the people and was "unconscionable."



"We are in a disaster zone and further disasters can erupt

from even an accidental a spark of fire," he said. "The fact

that this spill that happened a week ago is yet to be stopped

sends a very strong point to why government should focus on

cleaning up Ogoniland and not seek to open new oil wells. The

old wells should be shut down, and decommissioned."



Ogoniland, one of Africa's earliest crude oil producing

areas, has been dealing with oil pollution for decades, but its

profits have often flowed to the big oil companies and to

Nigerian state coffers. Local residents have long complained of

toxic waste and little compensation.



Nigerian oil consortium Renaissance Group, which now owns

Shell's former onshore subsidiary that operates the pipeline,

confirmed the explosion and said a team of investigators have

been dispatched to determine the cause of the spill.



The Trans Niger Pipeline (TNP), 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.



It was not immediately clear whether the TNP was shut. TNP

did not immediately provide a statement when asked for comment.

A prolonged outage could, however, force its operators to

declare force majeure on Bonny Light exports.



Pipeline sabotage and crude theft are some of the major

reasons that forced oil majors like Shell, Exxon Mobil, Total

and Eni to sell their onshore and shallow-water fields in

Nigeria to concentrate on deep-water operations.



Renaissance Group, which includes Nigerian exploration and

production companies Aradel Energy, First E & P, Waltersmith,

and ND Western, along with the international energy group

Petroline, completed the acquisition of Shell's former onshore

assets in March.