Italian oil giant, ENI Saturday announced the suspension of its activities in Bayelsa State due to frequent thefts from pipelines.
ENI said the theft of oil from the pipelines “had reached levels that were no longer sustainable recently both from the point of view of safety for people and for the damage caused to the environment by these activities.”
The company said it had completely suspended all onshore activity at the Swamp Area site in Bayelsa in the night between Thursday and Friday.
“The decision was taken due to an intensification of bunkering activities, or sabotage of the pipelines,” the company said in a statement.
The Italian oil major was producing between 35,000 and 40,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day at the site and the theft and losses due to sabotage had reached up to 60 percent of production.