U.S. oil major Chevron has recovered 50 to 60 percent of production lost to inter-ethnic fighting in the Niger Delta in southern Nigeria in 2003, the head of Chevron’s Nigerian arm said on Thursday.
The company has been gradually returning to oilfields in the western delta where it had lost about 140,000 barrels per day (bpd) in output, said Fred Nelson, chairman and managing director of Chevron Nigeria.
“We’ve recovered 50 to 60 percent of the lost production … The fields were all in decline and anytime you leave a field for a couple of years, you’ll never get 100 percent back,” Nelson told a news conference in the capital Abuja.
“We’re making progress. We’ve got more production expected to come onstream in the next couple of months,” he added.
Nelson said Chevron was currently producing about 400,000 bpd in Nigeria. The company produced about 450,000 bpd before the crisis in early 2003, and was forced to shut down its entire operation for a few weeks.
Sabotage, pressure decline and continued insecurity had prevented the company restoring output at all its fields.
Its biggest project under development now is the offshore Agbami oilfield which is expected to add 250,000 bpd.
“Agbami is on track and on schedule. We expect it to be on production, I think we’ve officially said in the fourth quarter of 2008, and I have nothing to change that now,” he said.
CONVOY ATTACK
Nelson said operations were unaffected by an attack last week on military boats protecting a convoy of 11 Chevron barges travelling from the western delta’s hub of Warri to the Escravos oil-producing area.
Four Nigerian troops were killed in the attack, but Nelson said all 44 workers were released unharmed after one night in captivity, and all 11 barges were recovered undamaged.
He said the attackers did not make any demands and no ransoms were paid to secure the workers’ release.
“We’re back to normal delta operations today,” Nelson said.
One local community leader had said the attack was in retaliation for troops repeatedly shooting at villages along the route.
Edmund Daukoru, Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum, on Wednesday described the attack on the Chevron convoy as a setback to efforts to restore lost production in the delta.
Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research) has had about 500,000 bpd shut since a series of militant attacks on its facilities in February.
Nelson said he expected militancy in the Niger Delta to continue in the long term and Chevron was trying to address some of the root causes of the violence through community programmes and training of local residents to take on jobs with the firm
“We’re there for the long run and they’re there for the long run,” he said, referring to the militants.
“Force in the Niger Delta by itself is not going to solve the problem. You have to figure out ways to solve the problem in the communities,” he added.
Many of the delta’s impoverished residents feel they have received no benefits from decades of oil extraction that has damaged their environment. Their resentment at this perceived injustice fuels militancy and a violent trade in stolen crude.