Trouble for Shell's Nigeria exports

A rash of spills, unexplained leaks and community sabotage forced Shell to delay crude exports from Nigeria's troubled oil region.
The company, which normally produces more than 800,000 of crude said it had closed its Forcados Terminal due to a spill while loading delays of several days were expected at Bonny Terminal after a number of separate incidents.
"We could not say it was more than a coincidence," a senior Shell official said.
Any disruption to supplies of Nigeria's light, sweet crudes, a lot of which are supplied to US refineries, would usually push oil prices quickly higher, but in a glutted world market the news of Nigeria's latest problems triggered little immediate response from traders.
Shell gave no indication of when loadings could begin again at Forcados -- which exports a little less than half Shell's Nigerian output -- after a spillage of roughly 100 barrels has been noticed.
Shell said it was now starting to bring back onstream flowstations accounting for about 100,000 bpd of crude which had been shut after a leak now proved to have been caused by sabotage to a pipeline.
Separate community disturbances at the volatile Nembe region and another spill were the reason for the remaining cuts in production.
While industry analysts are cautious to blame the severity of the present barrage of problems on anything more than bad luck, all acknowledge that the dissatisfied communities of the Niger Delta are growing ever more restive.
"The whole delta is on a short fuse and that fuse is growing shorter by the day. The tension there is worse than I have ever known it," said an European who has worked in the region for many years.
Impoverished farming and fishing communities have long protested that they do not benefit from the roughly 2 mm bpd of oil which Nigeria produces -- accounting for about 90 % of export earnings.
Texaco said 4 workboats and at least 16 contract workers were currently being held hostage by villagers in southern Nigeria.
Hostage-taking, like sabotage, has become a regular occurrence.

Military ruler General Abdulsalam Abubakar has promised oil-producing communities a better deal, but few expect to see any rapid improvement in lifestyles to quell tensions which are compounded by ethnic rivalries.
Meanwhile the multinationals working in joint ventures with state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) face a dilemma in dealing with community problems and are reluctant to use force against local people.