Nigeria’s oil production has fallen by almost 40 per cent to 1.4 million barrels a day due to militant attacks on facilities in the Niger Delta region, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu has said.
Traders said crude alone was down to just over one million barrels per day (bpd), with condensates bringing the total close to 1.4 million bpd, Reuters reported.
According to the report, Kachikwu said efforts would be made to engage with people in the area. President Muhammadu Buhari has extended a multi-million dollar amnesty signed with militants in 2009, but upset them by ending generous pipeline protection contracts.
Angola’s crude was slow to trade due to more limited demand from China. China’s independent refiners have switched to buying more oil from Africa and Latin America instead of large volumes of Russia’s ESPO crude as they have struggled to cope with the excess light fuels that come with processing the grade.
Exxon was expected to ramp up Qua Iboe production early this week. The grade is under force majeure, with production down by as much as 250,000 bpd.
Production of Nigeria’s Bonny Light, Escravos and Forcados are lower than planned due to militant attacks, while Qua Iboe was down after a drilling rig damaged a pipeline.
Bonny Light cargoes were still trading, and sources said they were loading with roughly five days of delay.
Angola plans to export 1.74 million bpd in July on 56 cargoes, up from June’s planned 53 cargoes of 1.7 million bpd.
There are roughly 10 June-loading cargoes left, according to traders, including Dalia, Pazflor, Kissanje and Plutonio. PetroIneos sold a cargo of Girassol to Total, traders said. Prices were not available.
Limited Chinese demand has kept cargoes from trading more quickly, and demand overall was subdued despite outages in Nigeria and Canada, a source said.
Uruguay’s ANCAP issued a tender to buy crude oil for delivery from July 19-23.
Last week, Indian Oil Corporation bought 4-5 million barrels of oil from Shell and Statoil via a tender for July loading, but did not take Qua Iboe or Bonny – grades it often selects. It instead purchased others such as Agbami and EA, a trader said.
Managing Director of Seplat Petroleum Development Company, Austin Avuru had stated that it is output from deepwater oil fields that are run under the production sharing contracts (PSCs) as production from Joint Venture (JV) assets have declined due to funding and security issues.
