Nigerian violence cuts 40% of the country's oil production
ChevronTexaco Corp. and two other multinationals said Monday they have shut oil production totaling more than 40 percent of Nigeria's 2.2 million barrel-per-day crude output in response to growing violence in the oil-rich Niger Delta, the Reuters and Dow Jones news services reported.
ChevronTexaco officials at corporate headquarters in San Ramon said the production cuts represented 7 percent of the company's worldwide oil-equivalent production.
The growing Nigerian production losses further diminished world crude supplies reduced by the war in Iraq and Venezuela's failure to fully recover from the oilworkers' strike earlier this year. They also threaten Nigeria's economy, which depends on oil income as the world's eighth-largest exporter and the United States' fifth-largest supplier.
Nigerian military officials have ordered the delta-area oil facilities evacuated and assigned Gen. Michael Ogomudia, the Army chief of staff, to the region to lead the fight to quell what has been described as Nigeria's worst outbreak of violence in 60 years, according to media reports. The fighting between members of the Ijaw and Itsekiri tribes come on the eve of next month's national elections in Africa's largest nation. The unrest also is attributed to discontent over the oil companies' concessions to local residents.
The total shut-ins reported by ChevronTexaco, Royal Dutch/Shell Group and TotalFinaElf have reached 817,500 bpd, or roughly the same amount processed daily by the East Bay's five refineries, which use 800,000 bpd when they are running at full throughput capacity. None of the East Bay refineries, including the 165,000-bpd Martinez refinery owned by Shell or ChevronTexaco's 225,000-bpd Richmond refinery, uses Nigerian crude.
ChevronTexaco said it had shut down 440,000 bpd of production. Shell, which accounts for more than half of Nigeria's production, said it has shut a total of 370,000 bpd. Shell also has declared a force majeure, warning customers it may not be able to meet March and April crude contracts. French multinational TotalFinaElf said it has shut 7,500 bpd, according to media reports.