Reuters: Nigerian protest shuts 14,000 bpd Shell oil output: Wednesday 17 August 2005
LAGOS (Reuters) - A community protest in Nigeria has forced Royal Dutch Shell to close 14,000 barrels per day of oil production, a company spokesman said on Wednesday.
The protest began on Tuesday as a result of a breakdown in talks between Shell and community leaders of Rukpokwu, in southeastern Rivers state, over compensation for an oil spill in 2003.
"There was a shutdown of Agbada-1. The flow station produces 14,000 barrels per day," a spokesman said.
"We are doing everything we can to get them back to negotiations."
Shell is the largest oil producer in Nigeria, pumping 1 million bpd of the OPEC member nation's 2.5 million total.
Nigerian oil operations are regularly interrupted by protests in the southern delta region, where impoverished villagers feel they should get a greater share of the wealth being extracted from their tribal.
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