Royal Dutch Shell Plc. has opened the Bonny Light export terminal and began the export of 400,000 barrels per day Bonny Light oil from Nigeria.
The oil firm stated that it had also lifted its over two-month old force majeure on the crude grade. The force majeure, declared on May 10, was lifted at 09:00a.m. Nigerian time, according to an email statement from the Anglo-Dutch Company yesterday. This, the statement read, came after production was restored at the Bonny terminal.
The installation, which has a total capacity of 600,000 barrels per day, is used to evacuate 400, 000 barrels of crude daily, according to Shell’s website.
The force majeure was declared in early May because of a leak on the Nembe Creek trunk line, though natural gas supplies from the terminal were unaffected. Nigerian oil exports have been severely affected in the past couple of months because of an unprecedented increase in militant attacks, many of which have been organised by the Niger Delta Avengers.
The supply disruptions helped push oil prices above $50 a barrel, but as the attacks have subsided, prices have retreated in the past two weeks closer to $45 a barrel.
The oil major had, through its subsidiary in Nigeria, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), declared force majeure on exports of Bonny Light grade of crude oil due to a leak, which then led to the closure of the Nembe Creek Trunkline (NCTL).
This development was then a major setback to Nigeria’s crude exports, which have been plagued by militant attacks in recent days. Aiteo-operated NCTL and the Trans Niger Pipeline (TNP) are the two major pipelines in the Eastern Niger Delta that transport crude oil production from SPDC, Aiteo and third parties in their Eastern operations to the Bonny Export Terminal in Rivers State.
The Aiteo group, it would be recalled, acquired 45 per cent stake in the 97-kilometre NCTL and the prolific Oil Mining lease (OML) 29 from Shell and other joint venture partners – Total E&P Nigeria Limited and Nigerian Agip Oil Company Limited. Shell has since handed over operatorship of the pipeline to the Aiteo Group.
