Nigeria has released its shipping plans for January 2013, as four 950,000 barrel cargoes of Usan crude is expected to be exported in January.

According to a lading programme obtained by Bloomberg, the four 950,000 barrel cargoes of Usan crude is one more than December.

This is the first shipping plan to be released for Nigeria’s oil exports in January. The other grades including the country’s benchmark, Qua Iboe, were not currently available at the time.

Loading programmes are monthly schedules of crude shipments compiled by field operators to allow buyers and sellers to plan their supply and trading activities.

Nigeria will export six cargoes of Bonny Light crude oil carrying 184,000 barrels per day (bpd) in January versus a planned 215,000 bpd in December, data from traders showed.

It will also export eight full and part cargoes of Forcados crude oil carrying 208,000 bpd in January versus a planned 150,000 bpd to be exported in December, the data showed.

However, the grade that accounts for the biggest single stream of crude from Nigeria, Qua Iboe, has yet to be released according to traders, with one saying it was not set to be released on Monday either, with traders pointing to disruption caused by an oil spill.

Exxon’s Nigerian unit declared force majeure on Qua Iboe crude oil exports on Wednesday due to outages caused by a pipeline oil spill on November 9, which witnesses said had spread 20 miles down the coastline.

Between them, Forcados and Bonny Light represented 17.2 percent of crude oil exports in November compared to 18.8 percent for Qua Iboe, according to Reuters data.

Royal Dutch Shell lifted its force majeure on Nigeria’s benchmark Bonny Light crude oil exports on Wednesday, easing some of the supply concerns.