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The activities of militants in the Niger-Delta
further compounded misery on the nation’s
finances with a series of attacks on various oil
facilities, Shell Petroleum and Chevron the
worst hit. The immediate aim of the various
groups was clear – cripple the government
financially and force them to the negotiation
table. They began a series of well-planned
and executed strikes at various critical oil
facilities. On February 10, 2016 the Bonny-
Soku Gas line was blown up, three days later
they struck the very important 48 inch export
line at Forcados leading to production shutin
of 300kbopd. It took the company several
months to bring it back on stream but on
June 3 the line was blown up yet again. May
and June were pretty turbulent months with
multiple hits on Chevron, Shell, Agip as well
as NNPC facilities.
Nigeria’s oil production figures in millions of barrels per day – Source: OPEC
Peak production from the period was
2.14mbopd in January before the militants
began blowing up everything within reach.
At various times force majeure was declared
in more than one export terminal.
The NNPC released figures in November
which showed losses of about $420 million.
All arising from the activities of the militants.
Nigeria also recorded the lowest rig count
in the last decade in 2016. Hence not only
were oil prices low and militant activity
high, investments into the sector were not
happening.
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