The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, NNPL is set to resume operations at the Forcados Terminal with the expected rise in crude oil production to 350,000 barrels per day.
CAPITAL POST reports that the increase in crude oil production would rekindle the hope of the NNPL’s effort as it gets close to the August target of 1.8 million barrel per day oil projection target, following a month’s outage of the Trans Niger Pipelines System due to repairs at the Aleto section and loading systems leak at the Forcados export terminal.
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.
Both terminals are operated by Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC).
An impeccable source at the NNPCL towers disclosed on Tuesday that injections into the terminal were reduced following the report, but no force majeure was announced.
The source said that 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.
The disruption of Forcados loadings, according to the report, led to the deferment of about 250 000 barrels day production thus responsible for Nigeria’s reduction in OPEC crude oil output in July.
CAPITAL POST recalled that the Trans Niger Pipeline system was shut down due to spill at Aleto, near Eleme, Rivers State.
It was gathered that the 180,000 barrel per day pipeline is one of two conduits to export Bonny Light crude, even as the outage of the TNP, has led to deferment of over 120,000 barrel per day production from Nigeria.
This online medium further learnt that the total crude oil production deferments from both Bonny and Forcados terminals are over 350, 000 barrels per day.
These outages, it was further learnt, largely contributed to Nigeria’s low crude oil production levels of 1.29 million bpd in July, as reported by the latest report by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission.
