LAGOS, Nigeria — Royal Dutch Shell PLC announced Monday that its new, $1.1 billion crude oil pipeline running through Nigeria's restive southern delta is almost complete.
The 60-mile (97-kilometer) Nembe Creek Trunkline will be able to transport 600,000 barrels of oil per day from flow stations in the Niger Delta to Shell's Bonny export terminal, the company said in a statement. The company said the new pipeline will replace existing pipelines running through the delta, a region of swamps, mangroves and creeks almost the size of South Carolina or Portugal.
Shell, which discovered oil in Nigeria 50 years ago, remains the dominant oil major in the West African nation. Its Nigerian subsidiary, Shell Petroleum Development Co., partners with the state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. The pipeline replacement is part of its joint venture that includes local subsidiaries of French oil major Total SA and Italy's Eni SpA.
Shell said its Nigerian subsidiary's joint venture had replaced more than 621 miles(1,000 kilometers) of pipelines in the last five year. That comes after criticism Shell has faced from environmentalists and community activists in Nigeria, who blame the oil major's aging pipelines for oil spills through the delta.
Environmentalists estimate as much as 550 million gallons (2 billion liters) of oil have poured into the delta in 50 years' time — at a rate roughly comparable to one Exxon Valdez disaster per year. However, Shell blames militants and oil thieves for the majority of its pipeline ruptures and oil spills.
"Of course, the continued high incidence of sabotage and theft makes the job more difficult on top of the normal maintenance requirements of our operations," Mutiu Sunmonu, managing director of Shell's Nigerian subsidiary, said in a statement. "It is important to understand that projects such as these will have only a limited impact on oil spills until the widespread oil theft, sabotage and vandalism activities are stopped."
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