06 June 2016, Yenagoa – Following attacks by a militant group, Niger Delta Avengers, two oil majors – the Nigerian Agip Oil Company and Aiteo Oil have lost about 140,000 barrels of crude oil per day from their oilfields in Bayelsa State, it was learnt.
At about $48 per barrel, an estimated $6.72m daily is lost by the two operators due to attacks on oil export pipelines operated by the Agip and Aiteo alone.
Eni, Italian energy firm and parent company of Agip said the oil firm’s production had been cut by 65,000 barrels per day following last Friday’s attack on its pipeline in Bayelsa.
Earlier attacks in the oilfield on May 18 and May 24, 2016 had resulted in a shutdown of some 5,200 barrels of the Eni’s equity share of oil output.
An Eni spokesperson, who craved anonymity, confirmed the development in an electronic mail on Sunday.
The spokesman said, “The total deferred production due to the attack is 65,000 barrels of oil equivalent daily.
“I can confirm that. There is no further impact on production, since all production from the swamp area has already been stopped days ago.”
Also Aiteo, operator of the Nembe Creek trunkline which came under attack by Niger Delta Avengers on May 28, 2016 according to its spokesman, Mr. Shola Omole, said the line which conveys crude to Bonny export terminal had been shut.
Omole said some 75,000 barrels daily production was deferred as the line remained out of service.
Although figures from Shell Petroleum Development Company could not be obtained, the oil firm had placed its oil exports from Bonny export terminal under force majeure.
Force Majeure is a legal clause that frees a company from liabilities arising from its inability to meet contractual obligations due to reasons beyond its control.
SPDC, which in 2014, sold the 100 km Nembe Creek trunkline to Aiteo still relies on the line to lift crude produced from onshore oilfields in Bayelsa to the Bonny terminal in Rivers State.
The Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Mr. Ibe Kachikwu, was quoted on Thursday as saying that Nigeria was producing 1.6 million barrels per day which excludes further production outages due to attack on Agip, Chevron and Shell recently.
Observers believe that the development is likely to affect the implementation of the 2016 budget premised on a daily crude oil production of 2.2 million barrels of crude.
