Third major declares Nigeria force majeure

ABUJA, May 13, 2016 – Disrupted supplies due to problems with a pipeline has forced ExxonMobil to declare force majeure on Qua Iboe crude, traders said on Friday. The US major joins Shell, which had to declare force majeure on exports of Bonny Light on Tuesday. ExxonMobil has yet to comment on the nature of the pipeline trouble.

According to traders surveyed by Reuters, the difficulties faced by ExxonMobil, Shell and Chevron, whose Okan platform was attacked on May 6, have pushed Nigerian crude outages to some 700,000 bopd.

Nigeria was set to export 317,000 bpd of Qua Iboe crude in June. While Reuters said on Friday that ExxonMobil had cut back the flow of Qua Iboe, it is unclear by how much.

For more news and features on Nigeria, click here.

Read our latest insights on: