UPDATED: Shell Shuts In Gas Pipeline As Suspected ‘Militants’ Bombed Facility In Bayelsa

• Agip’s Crude Line Also Attacked

Armed men suspected to be militants have reportedly bombed a gas pipeline belonging to Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) in Bayelsa State, causing a huge explosion in the area.

BIGPENNGR.COM understands the pipeline was attack by armed men suspected to be recalcitrant militants in the Niger Delta.

The incident happened at the early hours of Monday, an official confirmed this night.

Sources from the area said that the facility was blown up with explosive at the Ikarama and Kalaba communities in Yenagoa Local Government Area of the state.

According to our source, the pipeline links the Shell’s Adibawa flowstation at JK4 (Edagberi/Betterland) in Ahoada West local government area of Rivers State and Shell operated integrated gas gathering plant at Obunagha.

“We heard a deafening sound from the area very early in the morning and later discovered they bomb shell facility in the creek, the source said.

Mr Ben Warder, a youth leader in Ikarama near the incident site, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday that residents heard several sounds from the explosions that rocked the oil fields on Monday.

“The site is not far from Ikarama, we heard sounds from the blast and it sounded like dynamites and it was not safe to go near.

“So, when the situation became quiet we had to trace what happened and it turned out that Shell’s gas pipeline and Agip’s crude lines were destroyed.

“The incident resulted to air pollution from the gas pipeline and crude leak which members of the affected communities are battling to cope with,” Warder told NAN.

A spokesperson for the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria who confirmed the attack in a terse message to BIGPENNGR.COM said:

“We have report of an interference on our pipeline about 1 kilometre from Ikarama Community in Bayelsa State. We immediately shut-in the line and we have informed the relevant regulatory government agencies and stakeholders. A government-led joint investigation team will determine the cause of the interference”.