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Houston Chronicle: Nigerian official says Shell to lose a license

Associated Press

THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS – The Nigerian government plans to take away Royal Dutch Shell’s oil operating license in the restive Ogoni region of the Niger Delta, an official visiting The Hague said Friday.

“We are going to revoke Shell’s license to operate in Ogoniland,” Bamibele Ogedenjbe told Dow Jones Newswires.

 Ogedenjbe is assistant director at the Nigeria Department of Petroleum Resources, which oversees permits of the country’s hydrocarbon licenses.

She was speaking on the sidelines of an oil industry conference.

Shell spokeswoman Eurwen Thomas in London said the company was “aware the Nigerian government has been reviewing licenses ahead of the next bidding round, but no final decisions have been reached.”

Representatives of the Nigerian government could not be reached to comment on the report.

Shell ceased oil production in the region where the Ogoni people live in 1993, amid growing conflict between the national government and local people opposed to what they saw as environmental and economic exploitation.

The region became known internationally in 1995 when the Nigerian government hanged Ken Saro-Wiwa, the writer and leader of the opposition movement, who espoused nonviolent opposition.

Since then, Shell has had periodic problems with vandalism to capped wells and unexplained breaks in pipelines that cross the region.

Nigeria is sub-Sahara Africa’s biggest oil producer and a key supplier to the U.S.

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