THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Shell: Shut-In Nigeria Oil Ops Running At 36% Capacity (ShellNews.net) Posted 11 Jan 05

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

LONDON -- Royal Dutch/Shell Group (RD) said Monday its Nigeria oil operations are slowly returning to normal after civil unrest forced them to shut-in about 10% of their output in December.

Currently, Shell 's government joint venture, the Shell Petroleum Development Co., has recovered 42,000 barrels a day of production, 36% of the 114,000 b/d shut-in from the Niger Delta fields, a London-based spokeswoman said.

Engineering work on restarting the rest continues, and could be completed Tuesday, the spokeswoman said.

Shell was forced to declare force majeure when hundreds of villagers from the Kula tribe angry that oil revenue wasn't helping their community overran oil platforms Dec. 5.

Shell said it would have to delay deliveries on 114,000 b/d of oil. Shell produces roughly 1 million b/d of world seventh-biggest exporter Nigeria's 2.3 million b/d.

The villagers retreated after the two sides entered talks and Shell is considering an agreement with the tribe.

-By Shai Oster, Dow Jones Newswires; +44-20-7842-9357; shai.oster@dowjones.com

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