American petroleum giant ExxonMobil stopped oil exporting from the field in Nigeria.
The oil production in Nigeria sank to its lowest level over the past few decades due to the continuing militancy and outrage all over the country.
ExxonMobil declared on Friday that they had to stop oil export in Qua Iboe region due to reasons beyond company’s control. As a consequence the part of production was curtailed.
According to the information given by the company on Thursday the real reason of oil production cut was pipeline damage.
Brent crude rose to $47 a barrel that is caused by problems with production in Nigeria as well as decline of production in the USA.
The oil price went up over 20% this quarter that reflects a considerable increase since 2011.
The Qua Iboe export issue compounds the problem of oil export from two other biggest fields in Nigeria – Bonny Light and Forcados.
Up until this year Nigeria has been considered to be the largest oil exporting country in Africa, whose economy depended on oil revenue in a large measure. However, oil theft and corruption have long held back production.
The Minister of Finance of Nigeria Kemi Adeosun announced that Nigeria’s oil production dropped to 1,65 mln bbl per day as a result of long-running problems with militants.
According to Reuter’s, production in Nigeria can shrink to 1,2 mln bbl per day if export from Qua Iboe and other regions continue to slump. It will be the lowest production level since 1970, according to the statistical review of BP.
At the beginning of 2015 oil reserves of Nigeria were more than 35 bln bbl according to BP.