OpeOluwani Akintayo
08 August 2018, Sweetcrude, Lagos — Nigeria’s crude oil exports rose to 1.64 million barrels per day, mb/d, in July, statistics sourced from Bloomberg have shown.
This represents a growth of 1.90 per cent from the 1.61 million b/d recorded the previous month.
The leap was the highest in four months.
The rise was attributed to Shell’s lifting of export restrictions on key Bonny Light grade during the month of July.
Latest statistics from the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC (provided by secondary source), also buttressed the rise, showing that the country’s production rose by 27.8 per cent in June to 1.66, from 1.632mbpd recorded in May, while data from direct source, said production rose by 11.6 percent in June to 1.511mb/d from 1.500mb/d in May.
On Friday, July 14, 2018, barely two months after declaring force majeure on the Bonny Light export, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited, SPDC, announced the lifting of the force majeure, indicating resumption of normal loading activities from its Bonny terminal in Rivers State.
SPDC had declared the force majeure on May 17, 2018, following the shutdown of the Nembe Creek Trunkline, NCTL by the operator, Aiteo Eastern E&P Company Limited.
Aiteo also declared force majeure on the NCTL production which necessitated the subsequent action by SPDC on Bonny Light exports.
The NCTL is one of the two major production lines feeding the Bonny Terminal, the other being the SPDC-operated Trans Niger Pipeline, TNP.
The NCTL is a 97 kilometre, 150,000 barrels of oil per day pipeline constructed by Royal Dutch Shell Plc, but handed over to Aiteo Eastern E&P Company Limited about three years ago.
According to the reports, last month, Akpo condensate shipments, which are not included in the figure above, rose to 123,000 b/d in contrast to 95,000 b/d in June. Combined crude and condensate exports rose to 1.762m b/d from revised 1.688m b/d.