Following attacks by a militant group, the Niger Delta Avengers, the Nigerian Agip Oil Company and Aiteo Oil are losing about 140,000 barrels of crude oil per day from their oilfields in Bayelsa State, it has been learnt.
At about $48 per barrel, an estimated $6.72m daily is lost by the two operators due to attacks on oil export pipelines operated by them.
Eni, an Italian energy firm and parent company of Agip, said the firm’s production had been cut by 65,000 barrels per day, following Friday’s attack on its pipeline in Bayelsa.
Earlier attacks on the oilfield on May 18 and May 24 had resulted in the shut-in of some 5,200 barrels of Eni’s equity share of oil output.
Aiteo, the operator of the Nembe Creek trunkline, which came under attack by the NDA on May 28, according to its spokesman, Mr. Sola Omole, shut the line conveying crude to the Bonny export terminal.
Omole said 75,000 barrels of daily production were deferred as the line remained out of service.
Although figures from Shell Petroleum Development Company could not be obtained, the oil firm had similarly declared force majeure on its oil exports from the Bonny export terminal.
Force Majeure is a legal clause that frees a company from liabilities arising from its inability to meet contractual obligations due to reasons beyond its control.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, was quoted on Thursday as saying that Nigeria was producing 1.6 million barrels per day, excluding further production outages due to the attacks on Agip, Chevron and Shell recently.
Observers believe that the development is likely to affect the implementation of the 2016 budget premised on a daily production of 2.2 million barrels of crude oil.
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