The Forcados Terminal in the western Niger Delta operated without a significant safety incident between September 2000 and September 2014, during which some 1.25bn barrels of oil passed through the facility, operator of the joint venture, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), said on Sunday.
According to SPDC managing director and country chair, Shell companies in Nigeria, Mr. Mutiu Sunmonu, the safety milestone translates into a daily average of 300 staff handling nearly two export tankers every week.
“This is a significant achievement in a work environment that involves multi-disciplinary staff teams and contractors,” he said.
“Over the years, SPDC has improved work processes and trained staff leading to the introduction of the Goal Zero initiative on safety. We’re happy that the improvements continue to manifest not only at Forcados Terminal but also in other installations.”
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Sunmoni said that over the past 365 days, a number of high-risk maintenance and engineering activities had also taken place at the Forcados Terminal, including rehabilitation of crude oil storage tanks, subsea repairs to the tanker loading system and upgrade to the jetty among others.
“The asset did not record any disruptions relating to these multiple concurrent activities, which is also evidence of the sustained and proactive engagement of the host communities,” he added.
The Forcados Terminal was inaugurated in 1971, and was upgraded between 1994 and 1998.
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It receives, treats, stores and exports crude oil produced by SPDC and other operators in the western Niger Delta, and has an installed storage capacity of 6.3 million barrels of product.
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