Wed Oct 8, 2008 4:55am EDT
CAPE TOWN, Oct 8 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile,Research, Stock Buzz) said on Wednesday that re-entering the western part of Nigeria was a key part of its strategy in Africa, but the oil firm added that security in the restive region remained a problem.
“Our strategy includes re-entry into the west of Nigeria,” Graham Smith, Shell’s vice president of exploration in Africa,, said at the Africa Upstream 2008 oil conference in Cape Town.
“Security and stability continue to be a challenge there,” he added.
The Anglo-Dutch firm, which was long the leading oil producer in Nigeria, has been hard hit by a wave of militant attacks in the Niger Delta region.
In July the company announced that it might not be able to meet all of its oil export obligations from Nigeria after militants from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) blew up a key pipeline.
MEND launched a campaign of violent sabotage against industry installations in the world’s eighth-biggest oil exporter in early 2006, saying it was fighting for the people of the Niger Delta to gain greater control of oil resources. (Reporting by Paul Simao)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
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