Aiteo alleges third party breach on Nembe oil facility

-By Yange Ikyaa

Aiteo Group has said it suspects third party breach of its oil facility, the  Nembe Creek Trunk Line.

In a statement issued by Ndiana Matthew, who is the head of corporate communications for Aiteo Eastern E&P Co. Ltd, “we have been informed of a fire outbreak by our surveillance team comprising the JTF, FSS around NCTL RoW near Awoba  today, 21 April 2019.  “Our Operations Emergency Response team was immediately activated and following its urgent intervention and containment action, we are constrained to shut in injection as well as other related operations into the NCTL

“In accordance with standard procedure, we requested the other injectors to do same. 

“The NCTL has, hitherto, enjoyed smooth operations preceding this incident founding suspicion that this fire may have occurred through an illegitimate, third party breach of the functionality of the pipeline, critical national asset.” 

In the meantime,  Aiteo says the relevant investigations are continuing, while further information about the remote and direct causes of the fire will be communicated as soon as these become available.  

The company also asked its stakeholders to await further and detailed briefing in due course. Aiteo Group is an integrated, global-focused Nigerian energy conglomerate founded in February 2008 by Benedict Peters. The company has significant business interests in oil and gas exploration and production; bulk petroleum storage; refining of petroleum products; trading, marketing and supply as well as power generation and distribution.

Its subsidiaries are Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Production Company Limited (AEEPCo) and Aiteo Power. Aiteo Group acquired OML 29 from Royal Dutch Shell and emerged as Nigeria’s leading oil and gas company after successfully tripling production levels.