AITEO Group

The management of Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Production Company on Sunday said that it had placed a ‘force majure’ on the Nembe Creek Trunk Line (NCTL) due to fire outbreak.

Ndiana Matthew, Head, Corporate Communications of the company, said this in a statement in Lagos.

He explained that the action followed information of a fire outbreak by a surveillance team composed of the Joint Task Force (JTF) and State Security Service around NCTL RoW near Awoba this Sunday.

According to Mr Mathew, “We are constrained to shut in injection as well as other related operations into the NCTL.

” In accordance with standard procedure, we requested the other injectors to do same.

“The NCTL has, hitherto, enjoyed smooth operations preceding this incident”.

According to him, the fire may have occurred through an illegitimate, third-party breach of the functionality of the pipeline which is a critical national asset.

Mr Mathew said: “In the meantime, the relevant investigations are continuing while further information about the remote and direct causes of the fire will be communicated as soon as these become available.

“We ask our stakeholders to await further, detailed briefing in due course”.

Aiteo Group is an integrated, global-focused Nigerian energy conglomerate founded in February 2008 by Benedict Peters.

The company has significant business interests in oil and gas exploration and production; bulk petroleum storage; refining of petroleum products; trading, marketing and supply as well as power generation and distribution.

Its subsidiaries are Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Production Company Limited (AEEPCo) and Aiteo Power.

Aiteo Group acquired OML 29 from Royal Dutch Shell and emerged as Nigeria’s leading oil and gas company after successfully tripling. (NAN)