By Timothy Oyomare
Seplat Petroleum Development Company PLC is working hard to avoid the pitfalls of 2016, resulting in the company suffering huge losses in that year and early part of 2017, a company source has disclosed to Media Issues.
The company’s single evacuation source, Trans-Forcados pipeline, came under heavy attack by Niger Delta militants in 2016, resulting in shut down, which affected Seplat’s operations for about 17 months due to stranded production.
Though, the vandalized Trans-Forcados pipeline has been fixed and come on stream, as an escape route and to avoid a repeat of this development, the source confirmed that the company is currently putting every effort to conclude work on alternative evacuation outlets.
These new evacuation outlets include the Escravos Pipeline which is being prepared and finalized for commissioning. In addition, Seplat is also constructing a facility that would enable it to badge and move crude oil out of Warri Refinery.
“When these are firmed up, the risk associated with single evacuation outlet would have been tamed and overcome”, the source added.
The Trans-Forcados terminal which was Seplat’s single evacuation source was the company’s highest risk element, and this led its share price to tumble in 2016 with most shareholders offloading their stakes in the company.
Seplat, which was founded in 2009, is gradually bouncing back, and currently producing about 70,000 barrels of crude oil per day, and approximately 300 million standard cubic feet of gas per day.