Royal Dutch Shell has declared a force majeure on crude shipments from its Forcados export terminal in Nigeria after sabotage to a pipeline last week, the company said on Monday.
The sabotage on two pipelines between the land-based Forcados terminal and its offshore loading platform is a setback to the recovery of supplies from Forcados, which was shut for almost two years by a string of militant attacks in February 2006.
“Because of community action, we have not been able to repair the export and water disposal pipelines after they were damaged by sabotage,” said spokeswoman Caroline Wittgen.
Exports were halted on Friday, but the fields feeding the terminal are continuing to pump oil into storage tanks at the terminal, she added.
Violence against the oil industry in Africa’s top producer has risen sharply over the past few years, driven by a combination of lawlessness, poverty, corruption and militancy in the vast wetlands of southern Nigeria.
The February 2006 attacks were staged by a rebel group, which says it wants regional control over the resources of the Niger Delta and compensation for decades of pollution.
But oil industry officials say some acts of violence are caused by communities to extort money from companies or in the hope of securing contracts.
The Forcados oil fields pumped about 380,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude before the February 2006 attacks. Having partially resumed pumping in the middle of last year, an industry source said they passed 100,000 bpd last week and were expected to reach 200,000 bpd by April.
The force majeure, which frees the company from its sales obligations, covers shipments for the rest of January and all of February.
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