/ 9 September 2009

Shell halts production at Nigerian oilfield

Anglo-Dutch oil group Shell has halted oil production of 115 000 barrels a day at its EA oilfield in southern Nigeria, it said on Wednesday.

Anglo-Dutch oil group Shell has halted oil production of 115 000 barrels a day at its EA oilfield in southern Nigeria, it said on Wednesday, citing ”operational reasons”.

The company said the shut-down could last ”days or weeks”.

”We suspended production at the EA oilfield because of operational reasons. The Floating Production, Storage and Offloading [FPSO] unit of the facility was shut down for repairs on Monday,” Tony Okonedo told Agence France-Presse.

”Around 115 000 barrels per day of production has been suspended,” he added.

Okonedo could not say when the oilfield, which only recently resumed operating after being closed for three years following a militant attack, would be reopened.

”We shut down to effect repairs and replacement of the facility’s emergency shut-down valve. It’s difficult to give a timeframe for the work of this nature. It may last several days or weeks,” he said.

He did not also say if the latest closure was a result of sabotage.

The EA oilfield was shut down in January 2006 after it was attacked by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend), the region’s most active and sophisticated armed group.

The attack shot Mend to prominence, amid claims that it was fighting for a larger share of Nigeria’s multibillion-dollar oil wealth for impoverished communities in the Niger Delta.

The group has carried out most of the high-profile attacks on Nigeria’s oil and gas industry, including that of Shell’s Bonga offshore field, a 200 000 barrels per day facility.

In July Mend attacked Shell’s well head at Cawthorn Channel 1 which connects with the Bonny loading terminal in Rivers state.

The violence since 2006 has forced Nigeria to cut crude production by nearly one-third from a previous figure of 2,6-million barrels a day. Output currently stands at 1,7-million barrels a day.

President Umaru Yar’Adua declared an unconditional amnesty in June for all militants involved in a so-called ”oil war” who laid down their arms. — Sapa-AFP