FG Abandons Broken Oil Pipelines, Transport Crude Across Waterways
- In order to increase oil production, Nigeria has resorted to a fleet of small river-going tankers
- This is coming after the country’s most important oil pipelines were reportedly broken
- According to a report, FG wants to increase output before the oil production restriction by OPEC
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One of Nigeria’s most important oil pipelines has been broken for months, hence, the country is resorting to a fleet of small river-going tankers to increase oil production.
Africa’s largest producer has begun utilizing the tiny ships to transport a new grade of oil, Nembe Creek, up the Niger River delta and onto an ocean-going ship stationed off the nation’s coast.
Source: Getty Images
According to export loading programmes, Nigeria is slated to load roughly 65,000 barrels per day of the new Nembe Creek grade this month and the following. Most of the decrease in flows from Bonny would be replaced by that, though not entirely.
This is part of the effort by the government to increase output before OPEC votes on new oil production restrictions.
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Oil was formerly transported through Nembe Creek
Previously, the same oil was transported to the Bonny terminal, which is run by Shell Plc, via the Nembe Creek trunk pipeline, according to a Bloomberg report.
According to those with knowledge of the situation, that pipeline, run by the Aiteo Group and once capable of transporting 150,000 barrels per day or more, hasn’t delivered oil to Bonny since February 2022. Another pipeline continues to provide Bonny with its contents.
The rerouting decreases total Bonny exports but shouldn’t impact Shell’s proportion of Nigerian oil. In 2015, Shell sold the pipeline to Aiteo.
According to a terminal information sheet from Bloomberg, the new logistical structure uses a floating storage offloading vessel dubbed Galilean 7 anchored next to the Brass facility.
It is substantially more expensive to transport Nembe Creek oil than oil from pipelines, which Nigeria and Aiteo own.
It takes around 24 separate deliveries to collect enough oil to fill a typical ocean-going ship because the river’s depth restricts the size of ships that can sail up it.
An official from Shell declined to respond. Requests for comment from Aiteo and NNPC did not immediately receive a response.
On October 10, according to tanker monitoring data provided by Bloomberg, the 1 million barrel Suezmax ship Maran Orpheus lifted the first cargo of the new grade from the Nembe Creek facility.
A report earlier stated that (OPEC) has revealed that Nigeria is about to witness the establishment of small modular refineries with 20,000 bpd capacity in the medium term.
Boost For Naira as Nigeria Retains Position as Africa’s Biggest Oil Producer for 3rd Straight Month
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has announced Nigeria is the top African oil producer for September 2023, Legit.ng reported.
OPEC disclosed this in its monthly oil market report released on its website and obtained by Legit.ng.
According to OPEC, Nigeria produced 1.390 million barrels per day of crude oil in September, based on secondary sources.
Source: Legit.ng
