Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) has stated that it has declared force majeure on the exportation of the Nigerian Forcados crude oil after a malfunctioning barge obstructed a tanker path.
SPDC in a statement on Wednesday declared force majeure on Forcados shipments, which takes effect from 12 noon on Monday, and the company said that efforts were underway to restore access.
Forcados is Nigeria’s sweet crude blend with an average output of about 200,000 barrels a day.
The shutdown is coming one month after Shell stated that it was restoring flows from its Bonny facility.
Nigeria returned to the top position as Africa;s largest producer in November, hitting an average output level of an 1.27 million barrels per day.
In October, the position was held by Libya with an average output of 1.24 mb/d.
Nigeria REALIZES 10 percent of its GDP from the oil and gas sector and petroleum exports around 86 percent of revenue, according to the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
This stoppage in crude export from Nigeria’s Forcados will further increase the ongoing issues that have cut crude oil export sales in recent months.
