XOM Exxon Mobil Corp

By Sarah Kent 

LONDON-- Exxon Mobil Corp. Friday said its exports of Nigerian crude had been disrupted after a drilling rig damaged multiple pipelines in the West African country.

The incident is the latest blow for Nigeria's oil sector, which has been plagued by a series of outages caused by damage to the country's infrastructure. In the past week, both Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Chevron Corp. have faced disruptions to their Nigerian output and the International Energy Agency said Thursday the country's oil production hit a two-decade low in April.

Exxon said the incident occurred on May 8 when a drilling rig owned by Depthwize Nigeria Ltd. and drilling on behalf of Conoil Producing Ltd. experienced mechanical difficulties and damaged Exxon's pipelines.

The company said some of its production had been curtailed and declared force majeure, a move that gives it legal indemnity for being unable to fulfil its export obligations.

Exxon didn't say how much oil was coming off line and wouldn't confirm the location of pipelines. The company operates the pipelines as a joint venture with Nigerian National Petroleum Corp.

We are working with NNPC to manage potential supply impacts, and with Depthwize to remove the rig and complete the damage assessment, Exxon said in an email.

Write to Sarah Kent at sarah.kent@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 13, 2016 09:05 ET (13:05 GMT)

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