Shell expects to lift Nigerian force majeure soon

Royal Dutch Shell expects to lift a force majeure on two grades of Nigerian crude oil by the end of November, a top official said on Thursday. “We are hopeful it will be lifted by the end of November on both the export terminals,” Ian Craig, the vice president for production and exploration in sub-Saharan Africa, said in an interview.
In late October Shell’s Nigerian venture declared force majeure on exports of Bonny and Forcados crude, citing damage caused by thieves and flooding that affected a third-party supplier. “The problem that we’re having is these repeated incidents. So you fix one, you go for a period and then you have another one. I’m pretty sure we’ll get out of this one quickly, the difficulty is how long before the next incident,” the Lagos-based executive said on the sidelines of an African oil conference organised by Global Pacific & Partners. Separately, Shell said its Nigerian output has been cut by about 20,000 barrels per day in the fourth quarter due to flooding in the Niger Delta.