The 150,000 barrels of oil per day Nembe Creek Trunk Line (NCTL), which exports Nigeria’s Bonny Light crude oil, has been shut down and placed under force majeure since last week, a spokesman for operator of the line, Aiteo, told Reuters on Tuesday.

The Trunk Line, situated in the Niger Delta region, is one of Nigeria’s major oil transportation arteries that evacuate crude from Niger Delta to the Atlantic coast for export.

The spokesman did not give a reason for the shutdown.

The pipeline is one of two that exports Bonny Light, so the terminal is currently loading only from the Trans Niger Pipeline, a spokesman for terminal operator, Shell, said.

The latest shut down comes barely five months after the pipeline resumed operations, following a fire outbreak.

The pipeline owners had in May restored normal crude oil transport operations through the pipeline after a successful completion of repairs on all reported leaks on the pipeline by the company’s Emergency Pipeline Repair teams.

Daily Trust