Global oil giant’s Nigeria subsidiary, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) has said it recorded less oil theft from its pipeline network in 2015.
The oil theft fell to 25,000 barrels per day (bpd), about 32 percent lower than its loses 2014.
The oil company in its annual sustainability report disclosed that total number of sabotage related spills on its network also declined to 93 in 2015, compared with 139 the previous year.
It attributed the decrease to divestments in the Niger Delta and increased surveillance and security by the Nigerian government, but said theft and sabotage were still responsible for around 85 percent of spills from SPDC operations.
President Muhammadu Buhari has said as much as 250,000 bpd of crude of its roughly 2 million daily production were to lost to vandals and promised to crack down on the groups responsible for pipeline attacks.
Still, the issue has continued to plague the country. Shell currently has a force majeure (pause in production) in place on Forcados crude oil exports following an attack on a subsea pipeline in February, while Italian oil major ENI reportedly declared force majeure on Brass River exports late last week.
