Oil & Gas
Shell Forced to Halt Oil Exports in Nigeria After Attack
By
Dec 23, 2005, 09:55

Royal Dutch Shell has been forced to halt oil exports in Nigeria following a pipeline fire that is still blazing in the country's oil-producing Niger Delta region, a company spokesman said on Thursday.

"We have declared a force majeure. That means we could not load crude oil from the Bonny Terminal until we restart operation again, " a Shell spokesman told Xinhua by telephone.

"Today, we will try to fight the fire and commence repairs of the pipeline to see what production we can restore," he said.

Shell had closed two oilfields and a flow station producing about 180,000 barrels per day (bpd) in all, following an explosion on a pipeline operated by the company, which took place 50 km south-west of the southern Nigerian oil city of Port Harcourt on Tuesday morning.

Shell said the explosion may have been caused by a dynamite attack carried out by unidentified persons.


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