By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Full operations have commenced at one of Nigeria’s crude oil export facilities, the Trans Forcados Pipeline, after it was temporarily shut down last week.
However, earlier this week, loading of crude oil resumed and the terminal is ramping up in order to make up for the shortfall caused by the closure, which lasted for about three days.
A spokesman of Shell Petroleum Development Company Nigeria Limited disclosed in a statement that, “There was low injection into the Forcados terminal on March 27 as a result of a temporary shutdown of the Trans Forcados Pipeline, operated by Heritage.”
But the spokesman noted that, “The pipeline was restored on April 2 and production into the terminal is ramping up.”
However, the cause of the temporary shutdown was not disclosed by Shell in the statement.
According to Reuters, Forcados exports were scheduled at 262,000 barrels per day on 10 cargoes in April. Nigeria’s total April crude exports were set at 1.854 million bpd.
The nation’s oil exports are expected to hold at close to 1.8 million bpd in May, loading plans showed on Friday.
Traders said Forcados crude oil loadings were delayed by two to three days.
The loading plans included at least 1.799 million bpd on 61 cargoes, but traders said two to three additional 950,000 barrel cargoes of Usan would be added at some point.
Usan operator, ExxonMobil, had not yet released the programme as it negotiated ownership of the cargoes, traders noted.
As a result, total May crude oil loadings are likely to be just above 1.8 million bpd, largely flat compared with April’s initial loading plan of 1.854 million bpd.
Dipo Olowookere 
Adedapo Adesanya