Shell shuts oil flow-station due to protest

Royal Dutch Shell said yesterday it had been forced to shut down an oil flow-station in the Niger Delta due to a protest by a group of local women over a lack of development in their community, according to a Reuter's report. The Anglo-Dutch giant said it had shut down the Otumara-Escravos flow-station in Delta State because of the demonstration but was in talks with the local community and the state government to try to end the stand-off. It did not say whether production was affected.

"Dialogue with the women, their community and representatives of the Delta State government continues with a view to resolving the issue," Shell spokesman Tony Okonedo said.

Many remote communities in the Niger Delta, a vast network of mangrove creeks, remain impoverished despite five decades of oil extraction, which have left their land and water polluted.

Such protests are not uncommon.

Royalty payments from oil firms and the sharing of federal oil revenues mean state governments in the Niger Delta have larger budgets than many West African nations, but endemic corruption has meant that little development has been achieved.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and LNG Japan Corporation have commenced preliminary discussion on strategic collaboration on the Brass Liquefied Natural Gas to provide the world's most competitive Finance and LNG marketing opportunity in Asia.

The Group Managing Director of NNPC Austen Oniwon said NNPC would collaborate with LNG Japan Corporation in the value chain and urged them to expedite action as the federal government had given the NNPC a timeline for the Final Investment Decision on the LNG projects.

He said this while receiving the LNG Japan Corporation team led by the President and CEO Mr. Yasunori Takagi in his office yesterday in Abuja.

The interest by LNG Japan Corporation was traced during the Fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development on Foreign Direct Investment to Nigeria.

"Japan LNG Corporation is welcome into Nigeria and NNPC as a major stakeholder in all the LNG projects in the country is willing to partner with you and do business that will be of mutual interest to both parties", Oniwon said. He expressed hope that when the Petroleum Industry Bill currently before the National Assembly is passed into law, the corporation would transmute into a ring fenced organization that will play in the international hydrocarbon market like other National Oil Companies. He urged Japan LNG Corporation to serve as a vehicle that will help in linking the NNPC to other gas markets in Asia.

President and CEO of LNG Japan Corporation Yasunori Takagi lauded NNPC for selecting LNG Japan Corporation as a strategic investor and expressed their willingness to participate in the realization of Brass LNG which will have a pump-priming effect on the increase of other Japan-led investments in Nigeria.

Daily Trust

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