Nigerian crude oil
exports are expected to increase sharply in April after several months
of lower production due to maintenance at key oilfields, trade and
industry sources said on Tuesday.
Initial tanker
schedules for 10 of the 17 crude oil production streams in Nigeria show
51.3 million barrels, or 1.71 million barrels per day (bpd), of crude
are due to load in April on 56 full or part cargoes.
Data from the
remaining streams are not yet available, but if the exports for those
areas are similar to recent averages, Nigeria’s total exports would be
close to 63.7 million barrels, or around 2.12 million bpd in 71 full or
part cargoes.
That would take
sales from Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil exporter and a key member of
the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, back to levels
not seen since January.
Nigeria is
scheduled to load around 1.86 million bpd in March in 65 cargoes,
revised loading programmes show. The country has an implied OPEC oil
production target of 1.67 million bpd but has not been inside that
level for around two years, trade and industry figures suggest.
Many of Nigeria’s
crude oil grades are light and of relatively high quality, with a low
percentage of corrosive sulphur compounds, making them attractive to
refineries.
Libyan alternative
Nigerian crudes are
similar in some respects to Libyan grades and have been attracting
strong interest from oil companies unable to load crudes from the North
African producer due to the uprising against Libyan leader, Muammar
Gaddafi, trade sources say.
Unrest in Libya has
cut its oil output by half, the chief economist of the International
Energy Agency said on Monday, and many traders have looked to Nigeria
as a possible alternative supply, sending premiums for Nigerian crudes
up sharply.
Repairs to several key Nigerian oilfields are continuing but should be completed later this month, industry sources say.
Royal Dutch Shell
has been carrying out maintenance at its deep offshore Bonga oilfield,
reducing output to just 32,000 bpd this month from around 184,000 bpd
in January, industry sources say. Production will recover to 133,000
bpd in April, loading schedules show.
Output from
Nigeria’s biggest benchmark crude oil stream, Qua Iboe, will also
increase in April after maintenance, rising to around 412,000 bpd from
337,000 bpd in March and 305,000 bpd in February, the programmes show.
State producer,
Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC), has said it is producing no
more than its OPEC output target and that the country’s combined crude
and condensate production was currently 2.4 million bpd. It has given
no breakdown or details.
Nigeria produces
significant amounts of condensate, a very light hydrocarbon, which is
excluded from the crude export totals and from its OPEC output target.
Loading schedules
suggest condensate output is also increasing with five 950,000-barrel
cargoes of Akpo condensate due to load in April, up from four in March.
