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Nigeria's Bonny Light crude output restarted

http://af.reuters.com/article/nigeriaNews/idAFLDE67P1IY20100826

* Force majeure on Bonny Light crude export in place

* Bonny Light production restarted from Aug. 21

LONDON, (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote) said on Thursday its Nigerian Bonny Light crude oil production had resumed on August 21 after repairs to flowstations.

A Shell spokesman said the force majeure on Bonny Light exports, which took effect from August 16, was still in place.

Shell said it discovered damage to oil facilities leading to the Bonny export terminal on August 11. The outage to production followed a series of sabotage attacks to oil facilities.

Trade sources had said the damage had taken around 100,000 barrels per day of crude output offline. Shell does not comment on the amount of production lost when there are outages.

Shell warned last week of a rise in acts of sabotage on its crude oil pipelines in Nigeria's southern Niger Delta in recent weeks.

Shell's Nigerian SPDC joint venture said it had recorded three incidents this month of suspected thieves drilling holes or using hacksaws to pierce pipelines in the Cawthorne Channel leading to its Bonny export terminal and siphon off oil. (Reporting by Joe Brock; editing by Sue Thomas)

Niger Delta oil pipeline sabotage 'increasing'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-10982177

Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has said acts of sabotage are increasing in southern Nigeria.

The Anglo-Dutch company said it had suffered at least three separate incidents of sabotage on its pipelines in the Niger Delta this month.

In a statement, Shell said it had put containment booms into surrounding waterways to stop the flow of oil.

Thieves known as bunkerers often try to pierce the pipes to siphon off oil and sell it on.

Shell official Babs Omotowa said thieves had drilled holes or used hacksaws to pierce pipelines in the Cawthorne Channel leading to the terminal at Bonny in Rivers State.

"The environmental and social cost of widespread sabotage is simply unacceptable," he said.

The Niger Delta is a vast network of mangrove creeks that make up one of the world's largest wetlands.

Shell said it had set up containment booms to stop crude oil flowing further into the mangrove swamps.

Poor communities in the Delta have suffered decades of environmental pollution from oil spills.

Militants have also carried out repeated attacks against oil installations and pipelines.

Shell says it paid $4m (£2.6m) in compensation last year related to oil spills in Nigeria.

Nigeria's Qua Iboe crude output set to rise

http://af.reuters.com/article/nigeriaNews/idAFLDE67M1L420100823

* Qua Iboe output recovers after pipeline leak

* Six Bonga, seven Forcados cargoes to load in October

LONDON,(Reuters) - Exports of Nigeria's Qua Iboe BFO-QUA crude oil were set to increase in October, loading programmes showed, in a sign that production of the country's benchmark grade has recovered after an outage earlier this year.

Qua Iboe output has been reduced in the last three months due to a pipeline leak which led ExxonMobil (XOM.N: Quote) to declare force majeure on exports in May. [ID:nLDE67A0R0]

The force majeure was lifted this month and the latest loading schedules suggest that output was back to levels reached before the leak, trade sources said.

Qua Iboe exports were expected to average around 398,000 barrels per day (bpd) in October, up from around 363,000 bpd planned for September, loading programmes showed.

There were 13 Qua Iboe cargoes of 950,000 barrels each due to be loaded in October.

Output schedules for two of Nigeria's other crude streams also emerged on Monday with Bonga exports due to rise to 189,000 bpd in October, up from the 158,000 bpd due in September.

Forcados output was due to average 197,000 bpd in October, largely steady from the previous month. (Reporting by Joe Brock; editing by William Hardy)

ExxonMobil resumes oil shipments after Nigeria spill

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jkDa-uuOmvBZCKuFnGK1K7k3NMew

LAGOS — US oil giant ExxonMobil said Wednesday it had resumed oil deliveries from Nigeria after cleaning up a spill from an offshore platform in the country's oil-rich south.

"Mobil Producing Nigeria, operator of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)/MPN joint venture) today confirms that it has lifted the force majeure it declared on May 12, 2010," the company said in a statement.

The US company declared the force majeure -- a legal clause allowing producers to miss contracted deliveries because of circumstances beyond their control -- following a leak on a key pipeline in southern Akwa Ibom State on May 1.

"We express gratitude to all customers, purchasers and joint venture partner, the NNPC, for their understanding during the production outage," the statement said.

Environment Minister John Odey met with with ExxonMobil top management in in June and ordered the company to clean the spill.

"ExxonMobil needs to show more caution in terms of the management of oil spills," Odey had told reporters after the meeting.

"We are concerned about the operation of ExxonMobil because once it is offshore, any spillage will, of course, affect the shorelines and it could go far beyond the area of operation," he added.

ExxonMobil is Nigeria's major oil operators, often accused by militant groups and rights campaigners of causing environmental degradation and destruction of the local communities' ecosystem.

India's IOC buys 4 mln bbls Nigerian crude

http://af.reuters.com/article/investingNews/idAFJOE67C0G720100813\

NEW DELHI/LONDON (Reuters) - Indian Oil Corp. (IOC) bought 4 million barrels of Nigerian crude oil in its second tender for October or late-September loading sweet crude, trade sources said on Friday.

India's largest state-run refiner bought one very large crude carrier (VLCC) comprising 1 million barrels each of Nigerian Forcados and Escravos grades from oil trader Vitol, the sources said.

IOC also bought a VLCC to be filled with 2 million barrels of Nigeria's benchmark Bonny Light from oil major Shell.

Traders said these were likely to be cargoes loading in October, although Shell has an end-month September Bonny Light cargo which it may use to meet its commitment to IOC.

IOC issued its third tender to buy October loading crude on Thursday with grade offers due by August 17 and price offers the following day. Both will remain valid until August 19.

IOC is India's largest state-run refiner and owns 10 plants in the country with a current combined capacity of 1.2 million barrels per day.