Nigeria’s major oil export platform Forcados Oil terminal issued its first loading plan since the it was shut down for maintenance in 2016. Reports from Reuters suggest that oil exports will route through the terminal in June and help push Nigeria’s exports to the highest level in about 15 months.
What happened to Forcados?
- Forcados was first shutdown in February 2016 after it was bombed by the Niger Delta Avengers. It was at the time the first attack Nigerians had seen on a subsea pipeline.
- It then suffered another setback in October 2016 after a further militant attack affected its loading program. This was after major pipeline repairs had been carried out.
- According to Reuters, “Forcados loading schedule includes seven cargoes, for a total of 197,000 barrels per day (bpd). That would bring total June exports to 1.75 million bpd aboard 58 cargoes.”
- Nairametrics also learnt that a crude oil tanker had been scheduled to depart to Takoradi in Ghana.
Nigeria avoided a cut in oil production after a deal reached by OPEC members to reduce the oil glut. With Forcados back on track Nigeria is expected to at least hit a minimum of 2 million bpd for the rest of the year. The government targeted an output of 2.2 million bpd in the passed 2017 Budget, a level that has not been reached in years.