Shell Nigeria Loses 20,000 BPD to Flooding

The Royal Dutch Shell said last week that its Nigerian output has been cut by about 20,000 barrels per day for the fourth quarter due to flooding and this could increase, worsening the company's production losses in the country.
Nigeria has experienced its worst flooding in five decades this year, with the River Niger bursting its banks in September. The flooding has reduced supplies from Nigeria by more than a fifth by some estimates, helping to support global prices.

The Royal Dutch Shell said last week that its Nigerian output has been cut by about 20,000 barrels per day for the fourth quarter due to flooding and this could increase, worsening the company's production losses in the country.
Nigeria has experienced its worst flooding in five decades this year, with the River Niger bursting its banks in September. The flooding has reduced supplies from Nigeria by more than a fifth by some estimates, helping to support global prices.
Speaking on a conference call to discuss Shell's third-quarter earnings, Shell Chief Financial Officer Simon Henry said the company was working to resume output that had been affected by the floods in the Niger Delta.
"The impact in the fourth quarter looks at least 20,000 barrels per day compared to the third quarter," he said. "We are not yet back up and running, so that impact could increase.
"We're doing everything we can to bring operations back as reliably and safely as we can."
The earnings season this week has underlined the challenges faced by Shell and rivals like BP Plc in boosting output. Shell said Nigerian losses led in part to a fall in its third-quarter global liquids production of 5 percent.
Other companies such as Total of France had to reduce output in Nigeria because of the floods, which Nigerian government officials estimated at one point cut at least a fifth, or 500,000 bpd, of the country's output.
In addition to the drop in output caused by flooding, Shell's Nigerian venture on October 19 declared force majeure on exports of Bonny and Forcados crudes, citing damage to pipelines caused by oil theft.
On September 30, Shell said its Nigerian unit closed the Bonny pipeline which sends crude to the Bonny terminal and stopped 150,000 bpd of production after oil thieves caused a fire.
An executive said the company expected to lift force majeure on both crude grades by the end of November.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Finance Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said she is worried that oil and gas prices could fall as more countries uncover reserves and sees the need to make plans to adapt to this new environment.