Shell Regrets Huge Decline In Crude Production

The Country Chair, Shell Companies in Nigeria, Osagie Okunbor, has said recent attacks by militants in the Niger Delta region have contributed to a “significant decline” in production levels.
Okunbor said unrest in the region had impacted on production, delays to projects, devastated the environment and ecosystems, and increased revenue losses for government.
The country chair, who is also the managing director of Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC), said this in Port Harcourt, yesterday.
According to him: “These illegal acts also have severe environmental consequences. In addition, security threats mean both our development and operating costs are higher than in many other operating environments globally. Ultimately, it means that available funds for the industry don’t stretch as far as they would, if we had a safer operating environment.
“It is clear that security of our assets and people is key to our operations, and the Federal Government has rightly said it will work to ensure a safe and secure working environment for everyone, not just international oil companies”, Okunbor added.
He gave year-by-year details of the incidents, saying that in 2015, theft of crude oil on Shell assets was 25,000 barrels of oil per day, compared with 37,000 bpd in 2014.
The number of sabotage-related spills declined to 93 incidents compared with 139 in 2014.
In 2015, the decrease in theft and spills was also in part due to divestments in the Niger Delta.
He added that both theft and sabotage were still the cause of about 85 per cent of spills from Shell’s pipelines in the region.

Susan Serekara-Nwikhana