Shell Looses 170,000bpd to Attacks on Pipeline
Following an attack on a flow station linked to the Bonny export terminal in Southern Nigeria, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) has had to cut oil output capacity by 170,000 barrels per day. Consequently, Shell is expected to declare a force majeure on oil exports from the terminal, implying that the company is unable to meet contractual terms with buyers.
This attack is one of the latest in a string of militant actions against Nigerian oil production facilities.
Production of Bonny Light, a Nigerian benchmark grade, was expected to average around 308,065 barrels earlier in May, according to the export loading program. Meanwhile, the continued threat posed by the seemingly unending crisis in the Niger-Delta to crude oil production in the country, has been further heightened after US-based drilling company Hercules Offshore Incorporated, said it was evacuating all its nonessential expatriate workers from Nigeria.
Hercules which operates lifeboats services for offshore operations in the oil sector would be the second major US Company to suspend operations in the region in the last two week, coming on the heels of Chevron Nigeria Limited decision to evacuate all non-essential workers from the area.
Saying the activities of militants in the oil-rich Niger-Delta is costing the nation a great deal, would be an understatement, wouldn’t it? It has become painfully obvious that these militants fighting for the emancipation of the Niger-Delta will stop at nothing to ensure that their aims and objectives are achieved. For how long will this go on? Will the Nigerian federal government wait till the image of the nation is completely tarnished before effective action is taken?
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