The Wall Street Journal: Shell Targets 174,000 B/D From Dormant Nigerian Wells (ShellNews.net)

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

August 11, 2004

Posted 12 August 2004

LAGOS -- Royal/Dutch Shell Group's (RD, SC) Nigerian subsidiary is targeting production of 174,000 barrels of crude oil a day from dormant wells by 2008, according to an internal magazine.

Shell Petroleum Development Co. of Nigeria, known as SPDC, has budgeted about $49 million for the recovery of locked-in crude oil from dormant wells in its fields in the country, according to an article in SPDC's in-house journal, The Shell Bulletin.

The company is already producing 70,000 b/d from 80 dormant wells, under a well reentry project launched in February.

The article said the company plans to raise the output from the closed-in wells by another 48,000 b/d before the end of 2004.

SPDC is the largest oil producing company in Nigeria, with its production accounting for nearly half of the country's total output. SPDC is 30% held by Shell , 55% by the Nigerian government, 10% by France's Total S.A. (TOT) and 5% by Italy's Eni (E).

It announced earlier this year it aims to raise its output to about 1.5 million b/d from 2006, up from about 1.1 million b/d at present.

Company Web site: http://www.shell.com/

-By Vincent Nwanma, Dow Jones Newswires; +234-1-585-0849; vinwanma@beta.linkserve.com