Shell Mulls Serious Review Of Nigerian Onshore Operation

The Royal Dutch Shell has said it was considering its portfolios in Nigeria with a view to reviewing the international oil and gas giant’s investments in the country going forward.
The Royal Dutch Shell’s Chief Executive, Ben van Beurden, who gave this indication, yesterday, added that company “needs to take another hard look at its onshore oil operations in Nigeria due to continued problems with theft and sabotage”.
It would be recalled that a Dutch appeals court, last Friday, held Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary – Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) responsible for multiple oil pipeline leaks in the Niger Delta, and ordered it to pay unspecified damages to farmers in Goi, Gokana Local Government Area of Rivers State and Oruma in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, in a victory for environmentalists.
But Shell maintained that the spills were caused by sabotage.
In November, it also lost a Nigerian High Court case that could lead to $44million in damages for spills.
“Our onshore oil position, despite all the efforts we put in against theft and sabotage, is under challenge,” van Beurden told reporters, saying it was a headache.
Shell’s Nigerian onshore joint venture – SPDC – has sold about 50 per cent of its oil assets over the past decade, he said.
“But developments like we are still seeing at the moment mean that we have to take another hard look at our position in onshore oil in Nigeria”, he argued.