Recently in Nigeria Category

Earlier this month, Royal Dutch Shell agreed to a $15.5 million settlement to resolve a lawsuit alleging that the company and its Nigerian subsidiary were complicit in human rights abuses against the Ogoni people who were protesting the environmental devastation of its lands from oil development, and the execution of poet and protest leader Ken Saro-Wiwa and other activists in 1995 by the regime of General Sani Abacha.

Shell agreed to settle the 1996 law suit shortly after a trial date was set in May. Shell has always maintained its innocence, and the agreement required no acknowledgment of wrongdoing. However, without a trial the truth about the allegations or Shell's protestations of innocence will never be fully settled.

Nigeria's oil industry already in the spotlight over the last few years owing to incessant militant attacks and crime, narrowly escaped the fallout from a clumsy bureaucratic blunder that would have delayed the delivery of a total 6 million barrels of crude to the international markets.

Local reports said state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation's plans to export six tankers of 1 million barrels of crude on Wednesday from various terminals across the country may have been jettisoned after the oil regulatory agency failed to get an export permit from the ministry of commerce in time.

Nigeria's oil output suffered another setback after first exports from Chevron's Agbami offshore field were halted and production cut due to technical issues.
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OPEC member Nigeria's oil production has risen above 2 million b/d for the first time in several months but total outages remain at a staggering 1.5 million b/d.

We continue to provide readers of The Barrel with our estimate of how much crude capacity in Nigeria is out of commission as a result of civil strife, with estimates also on the amount that has been shut in for maintenance.

Platts' chief Africa correspondent, Jacinta Moran, reports from Cape Town that the latest set of numbers definitely is not showing signs of improvement. In her most recent report, a month ago, Jacinta estimated that 708,000 b/d was still shut in due to community unrest and operational problems such as pipeline damage, etc. that marked an improvement from August estimate of 978,000 b/d. But Platts is now revising upward its estimate of shut in production to 1-mil b/d.

Platts' chief African correspondent, Cape Town-based Jacinta Moran, has produced her latest estimate on just how much oil is offline in Nigeria as a result of various civil strife. It's an important number -- and rarely defined by others -- because it's constantly cited as a reason why oil sits firmly above $90 for WTI.

Among her most recent findings:

Nigerian president Umaru Yar'Adua is making good on his anti-sleaze crusade in a country where blatant corruption has not only sapped public trust but pervades all levels of government in Africa's largest oil producer.

Gunmen in Nigeria are increasingly kidnapping children of well-to-do families for ransom, a troubling indication in the cash-for-kidnap culture that is shaking Africa's top oil producer.

A 13-year-old son of a prominent traditional ruler in the country's restive oil-rich south was snatched on Monday while being taken to school in Port Harcourt.

Platts' chief Africa correspondent Jacinta Moran, based in Cape Town, has compiled her latest summary of the amount of oil production offline in Nigeria.

Among her main points:

There is no doubt that Nigeria's continued loss of production has been a significant boost to oil prices. There also is little end in sight to the shut-ins that have taken so much oil off the market.

Platts' Africa correspondent, Jacinta Moran, with many years' experience covering that part of the world, has compiled the most accurate and complete list of the precise size of the outages. If you read various media accounts of just how much oil has been lost there, the estimates vary widely. But here is what we at Platts are using, based on Jacinta's research.