By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The lifting to a Nigerian grade of crude oil, Qua Iboe, to the global market seems to have commenced after ExxonMobil lifted a force majeure it declared about six weeks ago.
Last month, fire gutted the facility of the company, causing a halt in production, but after things were put together, production and loading of the product have resumed.
Qua Iboe is one of the two major crude oil grades from Nigeria. The second is the Bonny Light.
The key buyers of the Qua Iboe are the United States, India, Spain, Canada, the Netherlands and Indonesia.
Crude oil is the major source of foreign exchange earnings for Nigeria and on Monday, as at the time Business Post published this article, the Qua Iboe was down by 0.38 per cent to sell for $55.25 per barrel, while the Bonny Light was down by 1.00 per cent to trade at $54.72 per barrel.
The Qua Iboe oil pipeline system and terminal in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria form part of the ExxonMobil/NNPC Joint Venture (JV).
More than 10 production and 60 wellhead platforms are connected by a network of offshore oil and gas pipelines which lead to the Qua Iboe Terminal (QIT). The crude grade is the second largest of the main onshore terminals after Bonny. The most easterly of the main terminals, situated in Akwa Ibom
According to reports, Qua Iboe production started to ramp up to normal levels of 200,000 barrels per day in the past week with the release of both the February and March loading programs.
The Qua Iboe is a light sweet crude, which has a gravity of 36 API and sulphur content of 0.13 per cent. The crude, produced from fields 20-40 miles off the coast of southeast Nigeria, is brought to shore at the Qua Iboe terminal via a seabed pipeline system.
