Nigeria's July oil revenue drops 7% on month on output, export disruptions

Nigeria's oil revenue in July fell 7% month on month to Naira 483.5 billion ($3.02 billion) due to disruptions to crude production and exports at facilities operated by Shell and Total in the Niger Delta, the finance ministry said late Tuesday. "The decline in revenue is attributable to the force majeure declared by Shell and a series of shutdowns of trunk lines and pipelines at various oil-loading terminals including [the] Akpo [oil field]," the ministry said in a statement. Shell declared a force majeure in June on crude oil exports from the offshore EA field after the shut-in of 40,000 b/d of production due to damage to a facility linked to the field's floating production storage and offloading vessel. Oil accounts for more than 80% of Nigeria's revenue. The decline in oil export revenue also saw Nigeria's total revenue drop to Naira 630.3 billion in July from Naira 784.8 billion in June. Nigeria has struggled to produce anywhere near its installed capacity of around 3.2 million b/d because of frequent disruptions due to attacks on the facilities. While production has improved slightly to around 2 million b/d, it is still to meet the government's target of 2.39 million b/d in the 2014 budget.