Lagos — Nigeria's crude oil export, which had stabilised at 2.5 million barrels per day in the last three weeks, has declined as Shell declared force majeure on the export of Bonny Light following production deferment that resulted from a recent attack on its pipelines in Rivers State.

Bonny Light, Nigeria's largest type of crude oil, is the toast of foreign refiners because of its light nature and low sulphur content. It is called "sweet crude".

Shell's Corporate Media Relations Manager, Mr. Tony Okonedo, disclosed yesterday that the force majeure, which frees the company from contractual obligations to its customers owing to actions beyond its control, took effect from August 16, 2010.

"We are working to carry out repairs as soon as possible. The force majeure affects export of Bonny Light for the rest of August and September, following production deferment from recent crude theft activities in the Eastern Niger Delta," he said.

He declined to disclose the volume of production affected, stressing that "we don't give those figures", but unofficial sources said about 100,000 barrels are affected.

Shell's Vice-President for Health, Safety and Enviro-nment and Infrastructure and Logistics in Africa, Mr. Babs Omotowa, on Sunday warned of increasing cases of sabotage on its crude oil pipelines in Rivers State.

The company said between August 1 and 12, it recorded three separate sabotage incidents on its Cawthorne Channel-Bonny and Alakiri-Bonny pipelines, where suspected crude thieves drilled holes or inflicted hacksaw cuts to siphon oil.

He noted that each incident was thoroughly investigated by Joint Investigation Team (JIT) comprising government agencies, regulators, SPDC and community representatives which confirmed the cause as sabotage.

This latest force majeure came a few weeks after Shell completed repair work at the Nembe Creek Trunkilne and restored export of 100,000 barrels per day in Bonny export terminal.

Nembe Creek Trunkline is one of the company's major crude evacuation facilities in the Niger Delta and it also serves the Bonny Light crude oil export terminal.

The Nembe Creek, Adamama, Belema, Soku Field, Ekulama 1 and Ekulama 2 Flow Stations feed into the Bonny Export Terminal in Bonny Island of Rivers State, through the Tura manifold, located opposite Abonnema, the headquarters of Akuku-Toru Local Government Area of the state.

Militants under the aegis of the Joint Revolutionary Council (JRC) had also early this year claimed to have attacked the Tura Manifold.

But following the recent completion of the repairs, Shell also restored output at the 400,000 barrels-a-day Forcados terminal, which had been shut-in because of attacks by armed militants.

Nigeria's crude output has been rising steadily since last year, when late President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua's amnesty programme for repentant militants created an enabling environment for foreign oil companies to repair damaged production facilities and ramp up production.