Nigerian Forcados crude loadings back to normal: NNPC

Loading operations at Nigeria's Forcados oil terminal have now fully resumed after a leak disrupted crude exports for over three weeks.

"We had some trouble with one of the terminals, but we fixed that," managing director of Nigeria's state-owned NNPC Mele Kyari told Argus on the sidelines of the Gastech conference in Dubai.

Terminal operator Shell declared force majeure on shipments of the Forcados grade on 13 August after a leak was detected near one of the loading buoys. Loadings began to resume on 8 September, and Shell officially lifted the force majeure the next day.

No cargoes of the medium sweet grade left the terminal within the force majeure period, but at least six Suezmax vessels have loaded since 8 September. The George S was finally able to depart for the Polish port of Gdansk on 10 September after a 33-day wait off the Nigerian coast.

NNPC and its equity partners have decided not to circulate any loading dates for next month because of the length of the force majeure. Details on October loading dates are still patchy, but traders expect exports to bounce "back to normal" with around seven 950,000 bl cargoes potentially scheduled for a tally of roughly 215,000 b/d, most of which were initially scheduled to load in August or September.

Forcados exports are scheduled to average around 211,000 b/d in November across seven cargoes, according to fresh loading programmes.

By Nicola De Sanctis