Nigerian oil exports to slip on a barrel-per-day basis in March

NIGERIA’s oil exports are on track to edge lower on a barrel-per-day basis in March, a survey of loading plans showed.

Crude oil exports of 1.694 million barrels per day (bpd) are scheduled for March on 62 cargoes. While several loading plans for small grades were outstanding, the March total was likely to remain below the exports set at 1.843 million bpd in February.

Still, overall volumes will edge higher over the course of the longer month. March exports will add up to at least 52.5 million barrels, above February’s level of 51.6 million barrels.

Nigeria’s production has remained broadly stable in recent months, with no major militant attacks since January last year.

But tensions remained high in the oil-rich Niger Delta, and the most destructive militant group in recent years, the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) threatened to attack certain offshore fields in the coming days.

The group, whose 2016 attacks on the Forcados subsea pipeline shut the export terminal down for more than a year, specifically threatened the Bonga Platform and the Agbami, EA and Akpo fields. The militants also said they would target the Nigerian oil company Brittania-U.