Shell, Seplat’s oil production rises to pre-attack levels

 Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited and Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc have seen their crude oil production return to the levels recorded before the militant attack on the Forcados export pipeline last year.

The force majeure on exports from the Forcados terminal was lifted on June 6 this year by Shell, the terminal operator, more than 15 months after it was declared.

Royal Dutch Shell, a global oil giant, on Thursday reported a net profit of $3.6bn for the second quarter of this year, up by 245 per cent from $1bn for the second quarter of 2016.

It said its total production in Nigeria increased to 165,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in the second quarter of 2017 from 128,000 boepd in the same quarter of last year.

Shell’s production in Nigeria fell to as low as 105,000 boepd in the third quarter of last year amid a resurgence of militant attacks on oil and gas facilities in the Niger Delta.

Its liquids production available for sale in Nigeria rose to 48,000 bpd in the second quarter, from 34,000 bpd in the first quarter and 37,000 bpd in the same period last year.

The oil major’s natural gas production available for sale in Nigeria increased to 678 million standard cubic feet per day in the second quarter of this year from 619 million scfpd in the first quarter and 527 million scfpd in the same period last year.

Seplat, one of the indigenous firms hard hit by the shutdown of the Forcados terminal, said on Thursday that the recommencement of oil and condensate injection into the Forcados system had enabled it to successfully reinstate gross production at Oil Mining Leases 4, 38 and 41 to pre-force majeure levels of around 56,000 boepd.