Plans by the country to export about 800,000 barrels per day Bonny Light and Qua Iboe grade in May and June have been hampered by breaching of Shell’s Trans Forcados pipeline, Chevron and Exxon Mobile export line.
Nigeria deferred at least seven Escravos cargoes scheduled to load in May and June, according to revised loading programme.
It was learnt that Exxon Mobil is facing reduced production of Nigerian crude oil benchmark Qua Iboe, as an oil-drilling rig was damaged.
Qua Iboe has the largest output of Nigeria’s crude grades and was set to account for 317,000 bpd of exports in June.
Also, Chevron claimed that its platform in the Delta was attacked last by militants resulting to shut-in of about 35,000 per day.
Exxon Mobil said after the incident that Mobil Producing Nigeria (MPN) was monitoring the situation and had declared force majeure to avoid liabilities related to the Qua Iboe crude oil contracts.
A major setback for the Nigerian oil & gas industry came earlier this year, when the Anglo-Dutch energy giant, Royal Dutch Shell plc, declared a force majeure on its 250,000 barrels per day Bonny Light grade of crude oil because of the pipeline leakage.
Resurgence in militant attacks in Nigeria’s oil-producing region has cut output by as much as 800,000 barrels a day to 1.4 million a day and “massively diminished” the nation’s income, Emmanuel Kachikwu, Nigeria’s minister of state for petroleum, said on Monday.
The nation’s output hasn’t fallen as low as 1.4 million barrels a day on a monthly average basis since 1989.
Already, about 20 May cargoes remained available, while some traders re-offered previously sold cargoes. Grades available included Escravos, Bonny Light and Qua Iboe.
Some cargoes of Nigeria’s largest crude oil stream, Qua Iboe, planned to be exploring bought by the usual Indian refineries. Traders have resorted to taking similar grade or other West African crude grades such as Nigeria’s Agbami, or Angola’s Pazflor and Kissanje grades.
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