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Shell Increases Crude Output By 65,000 Bpd

Vanguard (Lagos)
NEWS
January 14, 2005
Posted to the web January 14, 2005
Lagos
ROYAL DUTCH Shell has increased crude oil output from Nigerian pumping stations
which were shut down by unrest to 65,000 barrels per day, a spokesman for the
country's biggest oil operator said yesterday.
"Ekulama II is up and running," he said, referring to one of several oil
pumping stations in the south-south, which recently reopened after more than a
month's closure.
Community unrest had obliged Shell to shut down some facilities accounting for
a daily output of some 130,000 barrels since December 5, 2004, when angry
villagers from Kula briefly occupied them.
The shut-down forced Shell to declare "force majeure", warning clients that it
would not be able to meet export contracts from its Bonny terminal until early
February.
Last week, the company resumed production of 47,000 barrels with the reopening
of its Belema and Santa Barbara plants in Rivers State, leaving some 90,000
barrels still halted in other stations in the coastal swamps of the Niger Delta
region.
But a spokesman said another plant -- Ekulama II -- resumed production on
Wednesday after successfully carrying out inspection checks on the facility,
raising its output to 65,000 barrels from the area.
He said inspection checks were progressing on Ekulama I, adding: "We hope to
reopen it before the end of the week."
The spokesman said the company was holding talks with irate villagers who last
week attempted to occupy the Odeama Creek station, some 30 kilometres (19
miles) to the west of Ekulama, causing a production loss of 8,000 barrels.
The villagers were protesting because a power generator provided for them by
Shell had broken down and they expected the company to repair it for them.
Shell is Nigeria's biggest operator, accounting for almost half of the west
African country's daily exports of 2.5 million barrels.
The company, like most oil majors operating in the coastal swamps of the oil-
rich but troubled Niger Delta, are regularly the target of community protests
and hostage-taking.

   

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