Shell evacuates some staff from Niger Delta
LAGOS - Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell has evacuated staff from some production facilities in the swamps of southern Nigeria's Niger Delta amid violent protests, the firm said.
Tony Okonedo, a spokesman for Shell's Nigerian oil exploration and production arm, said: "On account of the security situation we are evacuating non-essential staff from flow stations."
Shell's move came after militant youths from the Ijaw ethnic group clashed with Nigerian naval patrols in the swamps south of the oil city of Warri, a major base for both Shell and the US oil firm ChevronTexaco.
The Shell spokesman could not say whether the evacuation would affect oil production, or how many staff had been moved. A ChevronTexaco spokesman said he was not aware of his firm taking similar measures.
The threat of war between the United States and Iraq and the ongoing political crisis in Venezuela has already sent world oil prices spiralling, and traders are nervously eyeing the unstable situation in Nigeria, Africa's largest oil producer.
Nigeria exports more than two million barrels per day, but violent unrest in the Niger Delta region often disrupts the activities of the multinationals working in the region.
The approach of next month's national elections, the first since Nigeria's return to civilian rule, has heightened tensions in an area where resentment against both the government and oil majors runs high.
Last week five people were killed in a gun battle between militant youths from the Ijaw ethnic group and the Nigerian navy, which has been deployed to protect oil facilities from attack.
And last month fighting between two more groups, the Itsekiri and the Urhobo, in the nearby oil city of Warri, left dozens dead.
The Ijaw have a longstanding complaint that their fishing communities have been polluted by the oil industry and claim they should be compensated by the oil giants.
A judicial committee set up by Nigeria's parliament last month called on Shell to pay $1.5 billion in compensation to the Ijaw.
But recent protests have been directed towards Nigeria's government and electoral authorities.
Ijaw leaders claim they have been marginalised politically by fraudulent voter registration and an unfair distribution of electoral constituencies, and marginalised economically by a bill which gives federal rather than state government control of revenue from off-shore oil.