Chevron has lifted its declaration of force majeure at its Kuito offshore oil plant in Angola, as necessary mooring line repairs are completed.
Cabinda Gulf Oil Company – a subsidiary of US oil giant Chevron – declared force majeure on the offshore operation a month ago, as the rig’s mooring line suffered damage requiring repairs and preventing the company from delivering on all its contracts.
This week production returned to normal, with Chevron revealing that the period of force majeure had come to an end.
A Chevron spokesperson also disclosed that the company had been planning to do regular infrastructure maintenance on the Kuito terminal, as such the damage did not cause any addition cut in output as all the works could be carried on concurrently.
Perhaps the largest effect has been felt in loading capacity at the terminal – which usually loads two 920,000 barrel tankers per month – this capacity being reduced as the repairs and upgrades were on going.
The oil sector in West Africa has been struggling over recent months, as both Angola and Nigeria have experienced limitations in output with multiple big producers declaring force majeure for a multitude of reasons.
In Nigeria, increasing uproar is being caused by extensive oil theft which has recently caused damage to a number of pipelines, resulting not only in oil spills, but stoppages to production by some of the largest producers, including Shell.
Extremely heavy flooding in Nigeria has also caused problems in multiple industry sectors, the oil industry also having suffered as again, large producers were forced to halt production as many operations were submerged and sustained infrastructural damage.
According to the BP Statistical Energy Survey for 2012, Angola plays home to oil reserves of 13.5 billion barrels. Angola’s average production in 2011 was 1746.4 thousand barrels of oil per day, which constituted 2.13 percent of the world’s crude oil production. The oil industry also accounts for 80 percent of the government’s revenues and 40 percent of Angola’s GDP, prompting the country in October to launch a $5 billion sovereign wealth fund.
