Nigeria’s Oil Output At 22-year Low As Attack on Oil Infrastructure Persists

Following the series of attacks launched on oil infrastructure in the Niger Delta, Nigeria’s crude output has been pulled close to a 22-year low, according to Reuters data.

A senior labour union official on Monday, May 9, said Shell workers at Nigeria’s Bonga oilfield in the southern Niger Delta were evacuated following a militant threat.

Attacks late last week forced Chevron to shut its Okan offshore facility, taking out 35,000 barrels per day (bpd).

Shell said the unrest had not yet impacted production, but its Forcados field is still closed and under force majeure following a February subsea pipeline attack, taking out 250,000 bpd.

According to International Energy Agency data, the violence has depressed production in Africa’s largest producer to roughly 1.69 million bpd this month, the lowest since at least June 2007, when production fell to 1.68 million bpd.

A small reduction from any field would quickly send output to the next low, seen in August 1994, when it hit 1.46 million bpd, according to the IEA data.

“It’s really not a good situation,” Eugene Lindell, senior energy analyst with JBC Energy in Vienna, Austria, said, noting that the global excess of crude was keeping Brent prices from moving significantly higher on the back of the outages.

“They have less production, and they’re getting less bang for their buck.”