2nd Jun 2016 13:24
LONDON (Alliance News) - Bankers Petroleum Ltd Thursday said it expects to resume operations at the Patos-Marinza oilfield "in the coming days" following a storage issue that emerged earlier this week that was caused by a crude oil leak at the Petrolifera Italo Albanese terminal port facility near Vlore, Albania.
Bankers highlighted the issue on Wednesday, when it said the leak was caused when the terminal operator was loading a third-party vessel last week, prompting authorities to temporarily suspend operations at the terminal whilst an investigation was carried out.
Although the leak had nothing to do with Bankers, the suspension led to a shortage of storage for crude oil at the port facility and there was no room left at the oilfield itself to store oil either, forcing the company to curtail production as it has nowhere to place it.
Bankers started curtailing production on Thursday morning but said it expects the suspension enforced against the terminal to be lifted by authorities "in the coming days" which will allow the company to resume operations.
Bankers did not state whether storage would become immediately available once the suspension is lifted nor provided any guidance of the impact of the incident.
Notably, Bankers reported a quarter-on-quarter fall in production in the first three months of 2016 and warned that it had fallen further in the first month of the second quarter of 2016 - which is now likely to be further hit by the issue at the terminal.
Bankers shares were down 2.7% to 107.0 pence per share on Thursday afternoon.
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
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