AfrOil: Forcados terminal back online

Nigeria’s Forcados crude oil terminal resumed crude exports on August 13 following a month-long closure prompted by the discovery of a potential leak, according to a spokesperson for Shell Petroleum Development Co. (SPDC), the operator of the facility.

The Forcados terminal had been scheduled to ship 220,000 barrels per day (bpd) of medium sweet grade crude in July. However, exports were halted following reports that workers had noticed fumes near a buoy mooring that was loading the oil onto a vessel. The joint venture, which is 30% owned by Shell (UK), said last month that it was investigating the matter to determine the cause of the problem but declined to make any further comments.

Industry observers had initially expected the Forcados facility to be repaired within a week of the incident in July. However, SPDC was not able to address the issue that quickly, and the volume of liquids passing through the facility fell from 7.085mn barrels in June to 2.82mn barrels in the following month.