Shell Says Nigerian Production Is Cut By 220,000 Barrels a Day

(Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe’s largest oil company by market value, said as much as 220,000 barrels a day of crude production in Nigeria is shut in because of militant attacks.

As of today, 220,000 barrels a day of daily output is stopped, including 42,000 barrels following a pipeline attack on July 28, Chief Executive Officer Jeroen van der Veer said today in a telephone conference. In the second quarter of the year, 195,000 barrels a day of production was halted, the same volume as the first quarter, he said.


Militant attacks on oil pipelines and production facilities in the oil rich-Niger Delta have disrupted Nigeria’s crude production since 2006. Groups including the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND, have targeted facilities operated by Shell, the biggest foreign producer in the country. Nigeria typically produces the light, sweet crude type favored by refiners for its gasoline yield.

Shell’s production was cut by 42,000 barrels a day this week following a pipeline attack. Shell declared so-called force majeure on Bonny Light crude deliveries in July, August and September following the sabotage, for which MEND has claimed responsibility. Force majeure is a legal clause that allows producers to miss contracted deliveries because of circumstances beyond their control.

Bloomberg