July 30, 2007: 08:52 AM EST
LONDON -(Dow Jones)- Royal Dutch Shell PLC PLC (RDSB.LN) said Monday a force majeure on exports from the Forcados oil tanker loading terminal in Nigeria is still in effect despite the first cargo sent in more than a year from the facility in recent weeks.
“We did one crude lifting, but the force majeure is still in place,” Shell spokeswoman Eurwen Thomas said.
The loadings came from oil in storage and not from new production, Thomas said, declining to comment on how much crude was pulled from storage and on when other loadings were likely. The Forcados platform operated at a capacity of 380,000 barrels a day prior to militant attacks that shut the terminal in February, 2006.
Thomas also declined to say how much oil production had restarted at the South Bank flow station, one of many that connects to the Forcados terminal. The South Bank facility, which at peak capacity pumps about 36,000 barrels a day, restarted output in April.
A total of nearly 600,000 barrels a day, or about a quarter of Nigeria’s effective production capacity, is shut in the country stemming from militant attacks that started in late 2005. Shell’s share of oil production shut in Nigeria is about 195,000 barrels a day.
TABLE OF ESTIMATED SHUT-IN NIGERIAN OIL OUTPUT
(in barrels a day)
FACILITY COMPANY LOST OUTPUT RETURN DATE
Forcados Terminal
& EA Platform SPDC -a 477,600 2H ’07 -b
Olero Creek CNL -c 70,000 n/a
(Locale unavailable) Agip 15,000 n/a
Ogbainbiri Flowstation Agip 37,000 n/a
TOTAL 599,000 -d
a. SPDC is the Shell Petroleum Development Co., a joint venture operated by Shell, which owns 30%, and with the Nigerian National Petroleum Co. with 55%, Total SA (TOT) with 10% and Eni SpA (E) unit Agip with 5%.
b. Estimate from Shell and the Nigerian oil ministry.
c. CNL is Chevron Nigeria Ltd., which is a joint venture operated by Chevron Corp. (CVX), which owns 40%, and NNPC with 60%.
d. Total amount shut is about 24% of Nigeria’s estimated effective production capacity of 2.5 million barrels a day. The output capacity is based on an estimate by International Energy Agency.
-By Spencer Swartz, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 (0)207 842 9357; spencer.swartz@ dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
07-30-07 0852ET
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