Terrorist attack on a key pipeline plus a workers strike has removed 1 mbd of Nigerian oil – 40% of the country’s usual output – from the market:
Oil production by ExxonMobil Corp.’s local subsidiary Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited has been cut by 90% or nearly 780,000 b/d due to the strike by MPN workers, according to George Sola Olumoroti, Mobil branch chairman of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (Pengassan). [...]
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s main militant group—the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta—said it attacked a crude oil pipeline operated by Royal Dutch Shell PLC in Rivers state, in southern Nigeria, on Apr. 24.
Shell confirmed the Nigerian militants’ claim through community contacts, saying the installation affected is located around Kula in the eastern Niger Delta. Shell was forced to shut in 170,000 b/d of production as a result of the attack.
Following the assault, Shell was forced to declare that it would not be able to meet its contractual obligations for crude deliveries in May from its 400,000 b/d Bonny field.
MEND said it will continue to attack oil installations in the country in its effort to gain a greater share of Nigeria’s revenues from oil, much of which lies in the southern Niger Delta.
More on MEND here.