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CULLED FROM THE GUARDIAN



Idamkue@xxxxxxx wrote:
> 
> <<
>  Monday, 01 November 1999
> 
>  Nigeria loses 100,000 barrels of oil as Shell shuts flow stations
> 
>  By Tajudeen Adigun, Energy Editor
> 
>  CRUDE oil export suffers another setback as Shell Petroleum Development
> Company Limited issued a force Majeure at the weekend alerting importers that
> liftings for this month could not be guaranteed as scheduled. The Federal
> Government is expected to lose 55,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd). This is
> in addition to another 45,000 barrels per day to be lost by other joint
> venture partners.
> 
>  The notice, about the sixth in three months, is in respect of programmed
> loading from the Bonny export terminal, Rivers State, one of the nation's 10
> outlets.
> 
>  Shell blamed worsening community unrest for the development in the Niger
> Delta area.
> 
>  This is barely two weeks after the company extended till November 12,
> similar force majeure on exports from its second terminal located in
> Forcados, Delta State.
> 
>  A spokesman for the company, Mr. Bisi Ojediran, said the weekend's
> declaration was "necessitated by community-related production deferments".
> 
>  Specifically, a fresh communal crisis in the company's area of operation is
> believed to have forced a shut-in of three of the flow stations which produce
> crude into the Bonny terminal for export.
> 
>  The shutdown of the three major flowstations, located in Cawthorne Channel
> operating area of Shell, is believed to have caused production deferment of
> 100,000 bopd.
> 
>  Officials said the force majeure was informed by the fact that the
> production loss will reduce Shell's ability to load during the month at Bonny
> terminal's installed capacity of over 400,000 bopd.
> 
>  The Federal Government's share of the production loss is estimated at 55,000
> bopd while that of other partners in the oil prospecting joint venture -
> Shell, Elf and Agip - is estimated at 30,000; 10,000 and 5,000 bopd.
> 
>  No time frame was given for the force majeure but Ojediran said: "We have
> commenced discussions with the communities to reopen the flow stations".
> 
>  Industry observers, at the weekend, feared that the fresh disruption in
> production may further buoy oil prices on the international market.
> 
>  Prices have risen from a low of $9 a barrel in November 1998 to as much as
> $23 at the weekend following the decision by members of Organisation of the
> Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to curtail supply to the market by 4.3
> million barrels per day.
> 
>  Production deferment from Shell's field is expected to further reduce
> availability of crude in the market.
> 
>  The company had, on October 18, extended force majeure on lifting from its
> Forcados terminal, following decision of some local communities to prevent it
> from repairing a damaged pipeline.
> 
>  The pipeline connects Forcados terminal with Ughelli flow station.
> 
>  But two other companies Chevron, Nigeria Limited and Texaco Overseas
> Petroleum (Nigeria) Unlimited have been lucky in last few weeks.
> 
>  Texaco resumed lifting from its 50,000 bopd capacity Pennington floating
> production storage and off loading (FPSO) terminal after about one month of
> community-induced shut down.
> 
>  Chevron also resumed, over a fortnight ago, production of 100,000 bopd from
> five of its flowstations which it was forced to shut down for three weeks.
> 
>  The company shut down the flowstations - Olero Creek, Dibi, Abifeye,
> Makarabo and Utonana, feeding its Escravos, Delta State, terminal after an
> employee was killed in a shoot-out between warring communities.
>   >>