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Nigeria may lose top oil exporter status to Angola

By BusinessNews Staff on March 31, 2014

Following the recurrent theft of Nigeria’s crude oil and cases of vandalism, indications are the nation is set to loss its premier spot as top African exporter of crude oil to Angola in May, unless something happens soon.

Nigeria’s oil export in May, according to a report by Reuters, is set to be at around 1.59 million barrels per day (bpd) excluding the Forcados and Ebok grades of crude oil, its lowest since records began in 2009.

Exports are far below the over 2.2 million bpd attained in 2011, and the May figure is set to fall beneath the exports of Angola, which is usually the continent’s second largest exporter, whose export in May would be 1.67 million bpd, a provisional shipping list indicated.

Production of the Forcados grade has been hit by underwater pipeline leakage due to oil theft which led operator Shell to declare force majeure on the grade on Tuesday.

Shell Petroleum Development company of Nigeria (SPDC), on last week, declared a **force majeure** on the export of crude via its Forcados terminal , following which Nigeria’s crude oil export may have dropped by over 227,000 barrels.

The declaration was blamed on the repair work on the export pipe that was vandalised and used for siphoning crude oil by unknown persons in a water depth of over eight meters, the company said.

Specifically, Shell Nigeria’s spokesman, Precious Okolobo, said “the subsea line was shut when a leak was discovered on March 4, 2014, leading to suspension of SPDC and third party crude oil exports through the terminal.”

The problems affecting Forcados are the latest in a string of theft-related outages at major Nigerian grades, with Bonny Light production severely affected for much of last year.

Planned exports in April were initially seen at 1.73 million bpd, but were revised up to 1.86 million bpd after additional Bonny Light cargoes were added.

Traders told Reuters that there was a likelihood that there would be no exports of Forcados for May, although should the pipeline be fixed soon there could yet be a small volume of this grade, which could push shipments above Angolan levels.

Meanwhile, Group Managing Director of Oando Plc, Wale Tinubu wants government to involve Nigerian independent oil producers in the fight against the menace, as a way of resolving the nagging issues in the Niger Delta where majority of the nation’s crude oil is produced and exported to the foreign market.

Tinubu who spoke in Abuja during the oil and gas conference said indigenous operators who produce oil along with the international companies in the region know how to protect their interests in the terrain.

He said Oando Energy Producing invested over $1.50 billion in the development of its oil fields and the acquisition of Conoco Philip assets, while Seplat Petroleum Development Company is set to raise over $500 million from the London Stock Exchange to boost production in the region.

[Daily Independent]

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