Nigeria will experience a drop of about 225,000 barrels per day in crude oil exports in February after Shell shut down the Bonga Floating Production, Storage, and Offloading vessel for planned maintenance.
Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Ltd., which operates the Bonga field, confirmed the shutdown in a statement released on Sunday.
The maintenance affects one of Nigeria’s biggest deepwater production facilities and comes as the country seeks to steady oil output and increase foreign exchange earnings from crude exports.
Shell said work has already started on the Bonga FPSO and will stop production temporarily until the maintenance is completed, with operations expected to restart in March.
The company explained that the turnaround maintenance is a required exercise meant to protect the facility’s long-term condition and support sustained production.
Shell added that the shutdown was planned and necessary to maintain safe and efficient operations.
SNEPCo Managing Director Ronald Adams said the maintenance would help reduce unexpected production losses, improve efficiency, and strengthen the facility’s reliability.
Adams said the company expects to restart production in March once the maintenance work is finished.
He noted that the Bonga field produced its one billionth barrel of oil on February 1, 2023, since production began in 2005, showing its importance to Nigeria’s deepwater oil sector.
The company said the maintenance program should allow the Bonga FPSO to operate reliably for another 15 years, keeping it central to Nigeria’s oil output.
The Bonga FPSO remains one of Nigeria’s most important offshore production facilities and has consistently contributed to national oil production for almost twenty years.
The facility sits about 120 kilometers offshore Nigeria in water depths of more than 1,000 meters and began production in 2005, marking a major step in the country’s deepwater oil development.
Shell last carried out turnaround maintenance on the Bonga FPSO in October 2022, showing the need for regular shutdowns to protect the asset’s long-term condition.
Oil producers commonly carry out such maintenance in offshore operations, especially on older but high-capacity facilities.
Nigeria has faced difficulties maintaining oil production in recent years due to aging infrastructure, oil theft, and low investment.
Because of these challenges, companies increasingly see major maintenance work like the Bonga turnaround as necessary to sustain output from older fields while developing new projects.
The Bonga field has remained one of Nigeria’s most successful deepwater projects and continues to provide stable production since the mid-2000s.
source: nairametrics.com
African Energy Council