Royal Dutch Shell lifted force majeure on exports of Nigeria's Forcados crude oil, a spokeswoman said on June 7, bringing all of the West African country's oil exports fully online for the first time in 16 months.
The resumption of Forcados, which typically exports 200,000 barrels per day (Mbbl/d) to 240,000 Mbbl/d, bringing Nigeria to around the 1.8 MMbbl/d the government said it wanted to achieve before joining OPEC output cuts, from which it is now exempt.
Force majeure is a legal declaration that means the operator cannot fulfill a contract due to circumstances outside its control.
OPEC and some other producers agreed last month to extend output cuts of about 1.8 MMbbb/d until March. The initial six-month deal had been due to expire at the end of this month.
Nigeria and Libya, whose output has been disrupted by unrest and other factors, were both exempted from the curbs.
Forcados had been under force majeure since February 2016 after a militant attack on the main export route, the Trans Forcados Pipeline. Despite a brief resumption in the autumn of 2016, militants struck again and force majeure was not lifted.
Last week, Shell issued a loading program for June exports that lifted planned exports from Nigeria to 1.75 MMbbl/d, taking it to at least a 15-month high.
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