Oil Price Hits $50, Nigeria’s Exports to Rise

The economic woes of Nigeria has been eased as oil price increases in the international market towards improve earnings for the country.

Global oil benchmark, Brent crude, extended its rally on Sunday to hit the $50 per barrel mark, the third time this year, Punch reports.
This comes as the expected return of the Forcados export terminal has helped to boost Nigeria’s planned crude oil exports this month to about 1.98 million barrels per day, the most since January.

Forcados, whose export has been suspended since February after militant attack on the export line, is one of Nigeria’s largest crude grades with an average output of about 200,000 bpd last year.

No tankers have loaded from the terminal so far, according to Bloomberg ship-tracking data. Eight cargoes are scheduled to load this month with another six planned for November.

The recent upsurge in militant attacks in the Niger Delta pushed oil shipments, the nation’s biggest export, to as low as 1.38 million bpd in August from a high of 2.1 million bpd in January.

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, last week, noted that the country had lost an average of 500,000 to 700,000 bpd over the last six to eight months.