Repair work on key Nigerian oil export terminal runs to late September

(Bloomberg) — Repair work to a vital Nigerian oil terminal is expected to be completed in late September, meaning almost two months of halted flows.

The repairs to a subsea hose have stopped exports of Forcados crude since early August. The stream is often the single largest export grade. 

A spokesman for Shell Plc, which operates Forcados, confirmed that repairs remain ongoing at the terminal, but declined to comment on the time-frame for a restart. 

When exports do resume, the terminal is expected to start by shipping a backlog of delayed cargoes from prior months, according to traders of west African crude. 

Nigeria’s exports have been hobbled for months by persistent problems with crude theft and other, separate technical issues. 

Since June, the 180,000-barrel-a-day Trans Niger Pipeline, one of two that feed Bonny oil terminal, has ceased transporting oil altogether due to theft.

Shipments are scheduled to resume in late-October at Brass, where a force majeure has been in place since June, according to loading plan data compiled by Bloomberg. A very low amount of oil was reaching the terminal because of extensive illegal bunkering, or pipeline tapping, operator Eni SpA said last month. 

Nigeria’s output fell to 1.43 million barrels a day in the three months through June, the lowest quarterly production since 2016, the nation’s statistics agency reported last month.