Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) has lifted force majeure declared on its forcados crude grade last week, The Business Intelligence Africa (TBI Africa) has learnt.
Shell had on December 22 declared force majeure on exports of Nigerian Forcados crude grade after the obstruction of a tanker path by a malfunctioning barge.
Shell, however, said efforts were underway to restore access to the terminal, which was achieved yesterday.
Forcados is a gasoil-rich sweet crude blend and is one of Nigeria’s top export grades. Output has averaged around 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) over recent months compared to its full capacity of 250,000 bpd.
Force majeure on Forcados crude oil has been frequent in the past few months resulting in reduction of Nigeria’s oil export. The recurrent outages were attributed to operational and technical issues.
Key crude grades such as Bonny Light, Escravos, Forcados, Qua Iboe have all faced production issues and shut-ins due to operational and technical reasons. Halting shipments of Nigeria’s oil such as Forcados hurts the economy as it further worsens drop in government’s earnings from the resource.
