Angola oil exports at eight-year low despite December rise

LONDON (Reuters) - Angolan oil exports will sink in 2014 to their lowest in eight years, the loading programme for December showed on Friday. Angola is set to export 1.61 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude in December, up from 1.56 million bpd in November, a revised provisional shipping list showed, bringing exports for the year to 1.62 million bpd, the lowest annual figure since 2006. The lengthy shutdown of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant is helping depress Angola's crude oil exports, having clogged offshore platforms with unwanted gas supplies and forced operators to limit extraction. There were just three cargoes of the Girassol grade in December, below the usual five or six. There was just one cargo for November, with traders saying production facilities were undergoing maintenance. Girassol comes from block 17, a field which is thought to be affected by the closure of Angola's LNG plant, although operator Exxon said its policy was to not comment on operational issues. Crude grade Cargoes Barrels per day* Cabinda 5 153,000 Girassol 3 97,000 Palanca 1 32,000 Nemba 7 215,000 Saturno 5 153,000 Dalia 7 215,000 Hungo 4 122,000 Mondo 1 31,000 Kissanje 4 92,000 Saxi 1 31,000 Pazflor 6 184,000 Plutonio 4 129,000 CLOV 5 161,000 Gimboa 0 0 TOTAL 52 1,614,000