Oil theft looks set to push Nigeria off its spot as top African crude oil exporter in May and exports could fall to their lowest since records began in 2009, data have shown.
Nigerian exports in May are set to be at around 1.59 million barrels
per day (bpd) excluding the Forcados and Ebok grades of crude oil, which
had still not emerged.
Exports are far below the high above 2.2 million bpd reached in 2011,
and the May figure is set to fall beneath the exports of Angola, which
is usually the continent’s second largest exporter.
According to Reuters, Angolan exports in May were set to be 1.67 million bpd, a provisional shipping list indicated.
Production of the Forcados grade has been hit by under water pipeline leakage due to oil theft which led operator, Shell, to declare a force majeure on the grade last week.
Production of the Forcados grade has been hit by under water pipeline leakage due to oil theft which led operator, Shell, to declare a force majeure on the grade last week.
The problems affecting Forcados are the latest in a string of
theft-related outages at major Nigerian grades, with Bonny Light
production severely affected for much of last year.
Planned exports in April were initially seen at 1.73 million bpd, but
were revised up to 1.86 million bpd after additional Bonny Light cargoes
were added.
Traders said it was likely that there would be no exports of Forcados
for May, although should the pipeline be fixed soon, there could yet be a
small volume of this grade, which could push shipments above Angolan
levels.
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