* Forcados carries more than 200,000 bpd
* Closure also affected nearly half Nigeria's gas supplies
* Two power plants had lost electricity generation
* Shell says Nembe Creek pipeline still shut (Adds details, background, quotes)
By Julia Payne
ABUJA, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Nigeria resumed operations on itsTrans Forcados oil pipeline, a senior oil official said onMonday, bringing back on stream part of the network whoseclosure also led to a near halving of the country's gasproduction.
The pipeline, which had been shut for a week due tosabotage, resumed on Saturday afternoon, David Ige, executivedirector of gas and power at Nigerian National Petroleum Corp,told Reuters.
It transports the Forcados crude oil grade in the deltaregion and was scheduled to export about 260,000 barrels per dayin January and 210,000 bpd in February.
The west African crude market is already oversupplied, sothe resumption had little immediate impact on prices.
The outage also halted a significant part of Nigeria'snatural gas production. Gas fields had to be shut down becausethe condensate they produce alongside the gas is normallyevacuated via Forcados.
"Forcados is a major artery...when this pipeline is out welose gas production... (It) accounts for 40-50 percent of gasproduction in the country," Ige said.
Each time the pipeline goes down, two power plants also loseinput and electricity supplies for the east of the country areaffected, he said.
BACKLOGS
London and Lagos listed Nigerian producer Seplat, Nigeria's Panocean and NNPC's Nigeria's NationalPetroleum Development Co subsidiary (NPDC) produce oil for thepipeline. A small alternative route exists through the Warrirefinery but its capacity is small, meaning backlogs build upafter a few days, Ige said.
Separately, Royal Dutch Shell said its 150,000 bpdNembe Creek oil pipeline, which carries Bonny Light crude, wasstill shut. A leak was detected and the line was closed on Jan.17, a spokeswoman for the firm said. The line is operated byShell's Nigerian joint venture SPDC.
SPDC also contributes to Forcados' exports but at adifferent point closer to the Forcados' oil terminal.
Ige said the country produces around 8 billion cubic feetper day of gas, of which 1.9 bcf/day is allocated for domesticconsumption.
Almost 4 bcf/day is exported via the west African gaspipeline and as liquefied natural gas (LNG), with a portion usedto balance operations. About 0.8 bcf/day is flared.
Seplat increased its Nigerian oil production to 76,000 bpdin December and transported the majority of its crude via theForcados pipeline, a spokeswoman for the company said withoutcommenting on the status of the fields. (Additional reporting by Libby George, Editing by Tim Cocks andJohn Stonestreet)
