Maurel and Prom, France's second-biggest oil company and explorer with operations in Latin America and Africa has revealed that it has been informed of a force majeure effecting its flows in Gabon. Petroleum Africa reports

According to the company, it was told on September 4 by the oil pipeline operator, Coucal, that a situation interrupting crude oil shipments took place on the 12-inch section between Coucal and the junction with the 18-inch Rabi Nord oil pipeline.
The leak on the 12-inch pipeline, situated 2.5 km from the Coucal facilities, has been restored to good working condition and crude shipments were able to gradually resume on September 18.

The pipeline operator noted that it has taken the opportunity offered by this work to further strengthen other weak points across the pipeline, which will make it possible to operate it with a higher level of safety than previously seen. Production from Maurel and Prom’s Ezanga PSA fields resumed on September 19. It is currently up to 22,000 bpd and is expected to continue progressing. Maurel and Prom revealed that current potential production is 29,000 bpd.

Subsequent to this incident, talks were underway between the pipeline’s various users, the operator and the Gabonese authorities looking at the improvements to be made to this oil transportation network.

However, the Maurel and Prom Group has capitalized on this downtime to carry out certain work on Coucal that would enable it to quickly put in place additional exports.