Mobil Resumes Crude Lifting At Qua Iboe Terminal, Three Months After Force Majeure

Indications have emerged that the Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited, a subsidiary of United States-based oil and gas giant, ExxonMobil, will now resume shipment of Qua Iboe crude, Nigeria’s finest grade of crude oil, from Akwa Ibom State, inà October.
The resumption of crude lifting is coming barely three months after the international oil company (IOC) had declared force majeure on the exports of the grade following reports of a leak on the strategic crude pipeline to the terminal.
The decision comes as oil prices slumped 3 per cent, Tuesday, following another gloomy prediction by the International Energy Agency (IEA) on demand growth that suggested that oversupply in the oil market might persist longer than anticipated.
ExxonMobil had declared the force majeure after it observed a leak caused by what it described as a “system anomaly” during a routine check of its loading facility on July 14, this year.
The cause of the leak was not clear, but the force majeure came just days after the Niger Delta Avengers, claimed to have attacked the company’s 48-inch Qua Iboe crude oil export pipeline on July 11.
But 24 hours after the claim by the militants, the company’s spokesperson, Todd Spitler, debunked the claim, explaining that, “there was no attack on our facilities.”
However, industry sources have revealed that the company is offering an October-loading cargo of Qua Iboe crude oil, the first offer since the company declared the force majeure.
It was not clear if the pipeline had been repaired, or if the company expected it to be back on stream in time to load crude in October.
But the cargo is offered for October 8-16 loading at a premium of $1.80 per barrel to dated Brent.
A spokesman for ExxonMobil said the force majeure remained in effect but did not give a timeframe on the resumption of operations.
While ExxonMobil noted at the time it declared force majeure that the export terminal was operating, traders said the company did not release a revised loading schedule for the crude exports.
The last ship to load crude at the Qua Iboe terminal was the Ottoman Nobility on July 9.
One of the three other ships scheduled to load the crude had been near the terminal since July 12.
A vessel loads one million barrel of the grade every three to four days, and exports of 250,000 barrels per day aboard eight vessels were scheduled for July.
Before it declared a ceasefire recently, the Avengers had warned that if the company moved forward with repairs, “something big…will happen,” and threatened to attack the company’s workers, instead of blowing up its facilities.
It would be recalled that the Shell-operated Forcados crude oil exports, in Delta State, were halted since the Avengers attacked its subsea pipeline in February.
News of the planned resumption of crude lifting from Qua Iboe Export Terminal came just as oil prices slumped further Tuesday, with Brent crude down $1, or 2 per cent, at $47.32 a barrel, and the US West Texas Intermediate crude dropping $1.25, or 2.7 per cent, to $45.04.