Thieves force LNG to declare force majeure

Thieves tapping into energy pipelines have forced Nigeria LNG Limited, supplier of 10% of the world's liquefied natural gas, to warn it may not be able to meet all of its export obligations.
NLNG said yesterday it had warned buyers of possible disruption after Royal Dutch Shell was forced to shut down its Soku gas plant, which contributes 40% of NLNG's feed stock, to repair pipeline damage caused by thieves. Shell declared force majeure on its gas supplies to the NLNG plant in Rivers state following a sharp rise in illegal connections on pipelines to Soku in recent months.
"The level of theft from this pipeline has meant we had to remove more than 50 illegal valves in August and September alone," Mutiu Sunmonu, managing director of Shell's SPDC subsidiary in Nigeria, said in a statement. "Over the last few weeks the situation has deteriorated rapidly and resulted in a situation where safety concerns dictated we had to shut in. We also approached a stage where we have questions regarding the integrity of the pipeline which we will check," Sunmonu said.
SPDC said the force majeure would last for the duration of the shut down. It said repair work had to be carried out on pipelines outside the perimeter of the Soku plant itself but that the facility had to be shut down for safety reasons. It did not specify how long it would take for repairs to be completed.