/ 18 November 1999

SHELL STRUGGLES TO MEET DEMAND

ANGLO-Dutch oil giant Shell has declared another force majeure in Nigeria, the seventh in recent months due to unrest in the Niger Delta region, a company official said Thursday. In recent months, amid ethnic clashes in which dozens of people have died, the company has suffered operational stoppages that have forced it to declare force majeure on exports on six earlier occasions. The latest force majeure has been imposed Thursday at Shell’s Forcados terminal through which crude is exported to buyers, the official, who did not want to be named. He said Shell had notified buyers expecting deliveries between November 17 and December 6 to wait another six days for their consignment.