A man fishes in the Niger Delta near the village of Diebu, Nigeria, Saturday, May 18, 2013.
A picture taken on March 22, 2013 shows an illegal oil refinery destroyed by Joint Task Force at Nembe Creek in the Niger Delta on March 22, 2013. Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) on April 2, 2013 said it would temporarily shut down production the Nembe Creek Truck Line (NCTL) to remove a number of bunkering points on pipelines vandalised by oil thieves in the region.
Aerial view of an illegal refinery at Bodo, Ogoni in Niger Delta on March 22, 2013. Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) has threatened to shut down production in April for nine days in the entire Nembe Creek Truck Line (NCTL) to remove a number of bunkering points on pipelines vandalised by oil thieves in the region.'Whenever we observe a spill, or have a spill on our lines, we shut down production to depressurize and isolate the line, only then can we safely repare our lines because it is then safe to manipulate the line', said Jurgen Jonzen, SPDC corporate pipeline asset manager. Last year, 157 bunkering points were removed and 116 were leaking on the whole SPDC exploitation. Since 2009, SPDC has exprienced an upsurge in vandalisation of pipeline network by criminals causing severe environmental devastation of the region and forcing the company to lose 60 000 barrels daily this year.
Chief Executive Officer of Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC), Mutiu Sunmonu, speaks on the devastation of the Niger Delta region as a result of spills from oil thieves on March 22, 2013. Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) has threatened to shut down production in April for nine days in the entire Nembe Creek Truck Line (NCTL) to remove a number of bunkering points on pipelines vandalised by oil thieves in the region.'Whenever we observe a spill, or have a spill on our lines, we shut down production to depressurize and isolate the line, only then can we safely repare our lines because it is then safe to manipulate the line', said Jurgen Jonzen, SPDC corporate pipeline asset manager. Last year, 157 bunkering points were removed and 116 were leaking on the whole SPDC exploitation. Since 2009, SPDC has exprienced an upsurge in vandalisation of pipeline network by criminals causing severe environmental devastation of the region and forcing the company to lose 60 000 barrels daily this year.
Azuka, wife of the Nigerian militant leader Henry Okah, looks on during her husband's court appearance in Johannesburg February 28, 2013. A South African court found Okah, accused of leading the militant MEND group in Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta, guilty of terrorism on January 21 for masterminding two car bombs that killed at least 10 people in the Nigerian capital at an independence day ceremony in 2010.
