Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) has suspended loadings of Nigeria’s Forcados crude oil due to a suspected leak at the export terminal.
This is according to a Reuters report. Shell has temporarily stopped loading Nigeria’s Forcados crude oil due to a suspected leak at the export terminal.
The Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) has confirmed that 200,000 barrels per day of crude oil exports have been halted as a result of this incident.
According to the report, workers observed a sheen near the single-buoy mooring facility on Wednesday, prompting the suspension of activities in order to conduct investigations.
It is worth noting that among the country’s seven major crude terminals, the Forcados crude oil terminal had the highest crude oil output in June 2023, according to data from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).
More insights
Oil sheen refers to a film with shiny rainbow colour that appears on the surface of the water due to oil or gasoline spilled.
According to Nigerian law, licensees/operators are to take all practicable precautions to prevent oil spills.
In cases where this happens, licensees/operators are required to immediately control and contain it, irrespective of the cause.
They are strictly liable in tort for any oil sheen/spill from their facility.
Forcados production
Since the beginning of the year, the Forcados terminal crude oil production output has ranged between 5 to 7 million barrels of crude oil production, experiencing slight decreases in March and April 2023.
The Forcados terminal, which is located in Delta state, increased its crude oil and condensates production to 7,006,778 in May 2023 from 5,783,707 recorded in April 2023.
It will be recalled that during the height of the crude oil theft menace in Nigeria’s oil industry in 2022, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) said it discovered a 4km illegal connection from the Forcados terminal that had been operating undetected for nine years.
Meanwhile, an SPDC spokesperson responded by saying that while the company appreciates the additional surveillance conducted on behalf of NNPC to deal with illegal activities, the discovered theft pipeline was approximately 30km away from SPDC’s Forcados terminal.
So, it was not within SPDC’s pipeline right of way.
What you should know
In June 2023, Nigeria produced 1,248,960 crude per day and 55,088 blended condensates as well as 176,030 unblended condensates.
These figures made up a total of 1,480,078 (crude production) for the highlighted period.
The output of oil production from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)-13 only witnessed a minor decline in June 2023.
This was primarily due to Nigeria and Iraq mitigating the impact of production cutbacks implemented by other countries.
NNPC loading points have for decades been official stages for fraud and stealing of Nigeria’s crude oil. As far back as the late 90s, NNPC staff ensured that the measuring equipment at loading bays never worked. I saw where staff checked by site and use of deep sticks, how much crude had been pumped. You just imagine the possibilities. This has been on for decades.