15th August, 2023
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has resumed operations at the Forcados Terminal, with oil production projected to rise by 350,000 barrels per day.
With this, NNPCL is getting close to the August target of 1.8 million barrel per day oil projection target.
This development is coming after a month of outage of the Trans Niger Pipelines System due to repairs at the Aleto section and loading systems leak at the Forcados export terminal.
Both terminals are operated by Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC).
Exports from Forcados which was scheduled to ship about 225,000 barrels per day (bpd) in July, were halted on the evening of July 12 due to observed leaks on a single buoy mooring where oil was being loaded onto a vessel.
A single buoy mooring is essentially a floating loading facility, allowing huge tankers to dock offshore and discharge cargoes.
A source quoted NNPCL as saying that injections into the terminal were reduced following the report, but that no force majeure was announced.
According to NNPCL source, the cause of the suspension was identified by a collaborative investigation involving the NNPCL Upstream Unit, SPDC, Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission and representatives of relevant stakeholders as well as government agencies.
Report said that the disruption of Forcados loadings led to the deferment of about 250,000 barrels day production, which is responsible for Nigeria’s reduction in OPEC’s crude oil output in July.
Expectedly the 180,000 barrel per day pipeline is one of two conduits to export Bonny Light crude, while outage of the TNP was said to have led to deferment of over 120,000 barrel per day production from Nigeria.
It was learnt that the total crude oil production deferments from both Bonny and Forcados terminals are over 350, 000 barrels per day.