With Shell’s Trans Niger Pipeline and the Forcados terminal returning as early as November, economists predict that Nigeria’s oil production would increase beyond 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd), helping to stabilize the government’s dwindling oil revenue.
After repairs are finished, the Forcados Oil Terminal will restart export operations by the end of October, according to a statement made on Wednesday by Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC). Abimbola Essien-Nelson, the public relations manager for SPDC, in a statement revealed that they were working to “remove and clamp theft locations on the onshore pipelines to ensure full crude oil receipt at the port”. According to Essien-Nelson, the company’s ongoing program to remove illegal connections on the pipelines that feed the terminal includes both the active illegal connections to the SPDC joint venture’s production lines and facilities in the western Niger Delta and the inactive illegal connection to the onshore portion of the 48″ Forcados Export Line.
An important effect of this development, according to oil and gas analyst Etulan Adu, is an increase in Nigeria’s oil export numbers, which may assist the country reach its OPEC quota. Since November of last year, Nigeria’s oil production has fallen short of OPEC’s quota due to growing petroleum theft, according to Mele Kyari, group CEO of Nigerian National Petroleum
Company Limited.
