THE WALL STREET JOURNAL/DOW JONES NEWSWIRES: Shell, Oil Unions Open Court Battle Over Nigeria Strike: “Oil giant Royal Dutch/Shell Group (RD, SC) Monday opened court action to try to block a strike targeting oil exports in the world's No. 7 crude exporter -but failed in a first-round bid to block any unrest by unions in the meantime.” (ShellNews.net)

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

November 1, 2004 6:30 a.m.

LAGOS (AP)--Oil giant Royal Dutch/Shell Group (RD, SC) Monday opened court action to try to block a strike targeting oil exports in the world's No. 7 crude exporter -but failed in a first-round bid to block any unrest by unions in the meantime.

Federal Justice Abdullahi Mustapha in the commercial capital, Lagos, postponed the case until Nov. 18 and made only a verbal appeal to leaders of the country's two powerful oil unions to "maintain the peace."

Unions on Sunday called the strike over rising fuel prices here for Nov. 16, and declared Shell's Nigeria subsidiary - the country's top producer - an "enemy" of the Nigerian people for trying to block the strike.

The oil giant asked for the interim order from the court Monday, saying it feared wildcat or warning strikes from unions even before Nov. 16. Mustapha said such an order was unwarranted.

"We will maintain the peace provided Shell doesn't do anything to provoke us," Brown Ogbeifun, president of the white-collar Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, told the court.