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Shell back to work at Bomu



By Upstream staff 

Shell has resumed pumping crude through the Bomu pipeline hub in the Niger Delta in southern Nigeria, which had been taken over by protesters for six days, a company spokesman said today.

The protest at the Bomu pipeline manifold forced Shell to shut down 170,000 barrels per day of crude production.

"We have resumed production. It is not back up to normal but we are ramping up," a Shell spokesman told Reuters. He declined to give an output figure.

Shell had regained access to the manifold yesterday when protesters, who were demanding a stake in the oil flowing through their land, vacated the site after their elders promised to settle the issue in talks with Shell over the next few days.

The output cut at Bomu, which feeds the Bonny export terminal, had raised to almost 900,000 bpd Nigeria's shortfall in oil production after a series of attacks on the industry.

Abductions of oil workers and militant raids on production facilities are frequent in the impoverished delta, where many communities resent the industry that accounts for the bulk of Nigeria's wealth but yields few benefits for them.

Twelve foreign hostages are being held by different armed groups - the latest of about 100 expatriates who have been abducted this year. Most were released after their employers paid ransoms.


Friday, 18 May, 2007, 09:15 GMT  | last updated: Friday, 18 May, 2007, 09:15 GMT

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