Page 8 - DMEA Week 38 2022

DMEA COMPANIES DMEA

The gas pipeline unit will be offered up for sale gas sector, including but not limited to enti-
within the framework of a wider privatisation ties involved in upstream production, pipeline
programme. The Oman Investment Author- transport, hydrocarbon processing, fuel sales
ity (OIA) has announced plans to sell off more and petrochemical production. The gas pipeline
than 20 government-owned entities by the end unit was one of these nine companies.
of 2026 and hopes the divestments will generate Omani officials had said in June that OQ was
revenues of OMR2.6bn ($6.75bn). slated to privatise of two of its subsidiaries. How-
OQ was established in 2019 on the basis of ever, they did not specify which units had been
nine state-controlled firms active in the oil and designated for sale. ™

PIPELINES
SPDC close to agreement that will let

testing of Trans Niger Pipeline resume

AFRICA SHELL Petroleum Development Co. (SPDC) company and regulators from accessing the site
is close to resolving the challenges that have of the alleged spills, but I can tell you that the
prevented it from resuming the testing of the access challenge is being resolved such that the
Trans-Niger Pipeline (TNP), its main crude oil regulator and SPDC will be allowed to visit the
transportation link, which has been idle for the site any moment,” he commented.
last two months, Vanguard reported on Septem- The source went on to say that SPDC did not
ber 16. expect to find evidence of any significant leaks
The newspaper explained that the joint ven- from the pipeline. “We know the SPDC joint
ture had been forced to postpone its testing pro- venture’s TNP is not formally shut, but we also
gramme because of difficulty accessing sections know that the line has not conveyed significant
of the TNP that had been targeted by oil thieves oil in more than two months,” he noted. “So if
or that were vulnerable to sabotage and theft. It it is established that a spill did occur, we expect
then cited an authoritative source as saying that that any impact of the spill would be minimal.”
SPDC was coming closer to settling some of the His statements were echoed by Michael
disputes with the Bodo community in Rivers Adande, a spokesman for the joint venture.
state that had contributed to this lack of access. Adande was quoted by Vanguard as saying on
The joint venture is working toward an agree- September 16 that SPDC had joined forces with
ment that will permit both SPDC representa- the relevant stakeholders to gain access to the
tives and government officials to inspect sites sites where incidents had been reported along
where oil spills are alleged to have occurred, the the TNP route. Securing access to these loca-
source said. “The resolution will allow regulators tions will allow government officials to investi-
and SPDC access any troubled sections of the gate reports of spills and SPDC to launch repair
TNP in the community for investigation and work so that tests can resume, he stated.
necessary repairs,” he stated. TNP was built to carry crude oil from the
The Bodo community has imposed certain Nun River fields to the Bonny terminal and has a
conditions on access, the source added, with- design capacity of 180,000 barrels per day (bpd).
out elaborating. “Some people prevented the It has been in operation since 1965. ™

SPDC’s Trans-Niger Pipeline has been idle for two months (Photo: Shell Nigeria)

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 38 22•September•2022