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The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) has shut down the Trans Niger Pipeline (TNP) after observing a fire on the pipeline’s right of way located at Gio in Rivers State, according to a statement released on Monday. SPDC did not disclose the cause of the fire or whether oil exports have been subjected to a force majeure.

“A fire has been observed on the right of way of the Trans Niger Pipeline at Gio in Ogoni land,” a Shell spokesman said. “This is also the right of way of the Bonny Refinery pipeline belonging to the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), a subsidiary of NNPC. A joint investigation visit will determine the cause and impact of the fire. SPDC has shut the TNP as a precautionary measure pending the investigation.”

The Trans Niger Pipeline transports around 180,000 barrels of crude oil per day to the Bonny Export Terminal and is part of the gas liquids evacuation infrastructure, critical for continued domestic power generation (Afam VI power plant) and liquefied gas exports.

Oil majors, including SPDC, have been forced to shut down pipelines or declare force majeure on exports due mainly to incessant attacks by Niger Delta militants. In May this year, SPDC declared a force majeure on Bonny Light crude exports due to a leak on the Nembe Creek Truck Line. Two months earlier, the company also declared a force majeure on Forcados oil exports after militants blew up the Trans Forcados Pipeline, a major trunk of the Forcados oil pipeline system. (Both Nembe and Forcados pipelines are located in Rivers State). Shell is set to resume crude exports at the Forcados terminal on September 28.

These frequent shut downs have hurt Nigeria’s oil production, which fell to around 1.4 million bpd in August from around 2.2 million bpd in December last year. According to Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, oil production rose to 1.75 million bpd as of last week due to the ceasefire that was in force.