Nigerian crude exports will top 2 million barrels per day in August, reaching a 17-month high, according to new data compiled by Reuters on Thursday.
Attacks by militants in the Niger Delta had crippled production in 2016, but the African nation has been rebuilding output steadily through 2017.
Drops in output last year were so bad that OPEC exempted Abuja from the bloc's November deal to cut production by 1.2 million barrels per day.
The new rise in exports can partially be attributed to delayed shipments from July, Reuters said.
An estimated 2.02 million bpd of Nigerian crude will leave ports on 67 tankers in August, along with another 97,000 bpd of condensates.
The Forcados crude grade began loading again earlier this month, when Royal Dutch Shell lifted a force majeure on facilities related to the grade. A total of 10.3 million barrels of Forcados crude will be shipped in August.
Bonny Light, also controlled by Shell, is currently under force majeure due to a critical pipeline leak that has already delayed shipments by ten days.
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A new group of militants have called on former Niger Delta Avengers and other fights to resume attacks on oil pipelines on June 30th, claiming President Muhammadu Buhari's administration has not done enough to ensure the area's residents will benefit fairly from oil revenues.
The other nation exempt from the OPEC production cut deal, which has failed to sustain an increase in oil prices in the first six months of implementation, is Libya. The war-torn country's new stability has allowed production to recover to 885,000 bpd, according to the latest figures. By the end of the year, output should top 1.3 million, according to Mustafa Sanalla, head of the National Oil Corporation.
By Zainab Calcuttawala for Oilprice.com
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Zainab Calcuttawala is an American journalist based in Morocco. She completed her undergraduate coursework at the University of Texas at Austin (Hook’em) and reports on… More