AllAfrica.com: Shell Won't Leave Nigeria - MD

Daily Champion (Lagos) 

FELIX DURUMBAH, News Editor

Lagos

July 25, 2004

Posted 27 July 2004

MANAGING Director of Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDCN), Mr. Basil Omiyi said at week-end that despite the crises rocking oil exploration in the Niger Delta, the firm would not pull out of the area.

He said his recent appointment as the first indigenous boss of SPDCN showed that Shell is "an equal opportunity firm."

Speaking during an interview on the United States (U.S)-based Cable News Network, (CNN), Mr. Omiyi said Shell is "very welcome" in the Niger Delta, contrary to reports in some quarters that the firm would quit the area in 2008.

Mr. Omiyi said the official reading at a time appeared to move towards quitting going by trends in the crises-prone region.

But with Shell presently producing over one million barrels per day (bpd) of crude in the Niger Delta alone despite the situation there he said, the development indicated that "we're very welcome to continue to produce that."

"Shell in not moving out of the Niger Delta," he said.

The Shell boss dismissed the notion that criminality is high in the Niger Delta, saying the trend "happens elsewhere in the world," adding that it is in the company's interest, however, to see a safe environment.

Mr. Omiyi said in that wise, Shell is getting adequate co-operation from the federal government.

On his historic appointment, he said it showed that "Nigerians are capable, able to progress at those (very high) levels if the platform is given."

According to him, if more of such opportunities are given, the world will see that Nigerians are "able and capable" of rising to the occasion.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200407260396.html