ABUJA, July 26 (Reuters) - Nigeria's liquefied natural gas(NLNG) company has lifted a force majeure on gas exports, afterthe maritime security agency ended a blockade on its ships overa tax dispute, the company said on Friday.
The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency(NIMASA) began lifting a three-week blockade on NLNG ships twoweeks ago, after the company agreed "under protest" to pay $140million back taxes NIMASA said it was owed.
The cost of the blockade in lost LNG exports was $475million, said NLNG, which is 49 percent owned by Nigeria's stateoil firm, 25.6 percent by Shell, 15 percent by Total and 10.4 percent by Eni.
"Nigeria LNG today lifted the force majeure declaration madeto its buyers and gas suppliers, after it lost all its productexport capability due to the blockade of access to its terminalby NIMASA," spokesman for NLNG Kudo Eresia-Eke said in astatement.
"As at today, the 6-Train NLNG Bonny complex finally reachedits normal operating capacity such that export operations can be... fully normalised."
As well as clearing the back levies, NLNG also said it wouldin future pay the 3 percent levies demanded of it, but has allalong disputed that the levies are owed and vowed to continuefighting NIMASA in court.
A court had ruled twice that the maritime agency should endthe blockade, but the ruling went ignored.
Buyers of Nigeria's LNG include Spain's Repsol,Italy's Enel, Britain's BG Group France's GDFSuez and Portugal's Galp.