THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Nigeria Oil Cos Losing 1M Barrels A Week – Regulator: “The DPR said companies involved in the shutdown are ChevronTexaco (CVX), Elf - a unit of Total (TOT) - and Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, a unit of Royal Dutch/Shell (RD).” (ShellNews.net) 30 Nov 04
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
November 30, 2004
LAGOS -- Nigeria is losing 1.06 million barrels a week or around 150,000 barrels a day of crude oil due to the closure of 14 flow stations in the Niger Delta, the regulator of the oil industry said Tuesday.
In a report released to Dow Jones Newswires for the week ended Nov. 15, the Department of Petroleum Resources said the facilities were closed as a result of "community-related problems" and vandalism.
The DPR said companies involved in the shutdown are ChevronTexaco (CVX), Elf - a unit of Total (TOT) - and Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, a unit of Royal Dutch/Shell (RD).
The report said ChevronTexaco is losing 999,600 barrels a week from six flow stations shut down, while Elf is losing 49,749 barrels a week from four flow stations. SPDC is losing 18,837 barrels a week from four flow stations.
The DPR gave no details of the community-related problems - a common feature in the Niger Delta where most of Nigeria's oil and gas is produced and where communities regularly attack oil facilities to press home their demands for compensation by the oil companies.
Nigeria is also losing part of its daily crude oil output to theft by organized gangs that hack into pipelines to siphon oil into ships.
The government has estimated the amount of crude oil lost to theft at about 70,000 b/d.
Several ships are known to have been held in the past with stolen crude oil but later disappeared in mysterious circumstances.
One of the ships, African Pride, was last year found to be carrying stolen crude oil, but it later disappeared and hasn't been seen since. Several senior naval officers are currently on trial in connection with the disappearance of the ship.
-By Vincent Nwanma, Dow Jones Newswires, +234-1-585-0849; vinwanma@beta.linkserve.com