(MarketWatch) — Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) maintained that production and loading are normal at its Nigerian exploration and production arm Tuesday, despite reports that the company had evacuated staff from its operations.
All personnel except for security at the company’s Nigerian oil operations have been told to stay home Tuesday, staff said, following threats by ethnic militants.
Senior staff told Dow Jones Newswires all their colleagues at Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited’s office in Eket and its accompanying Qua Iboe export terminal in the eastern part of the troubled Niger Delta had been told to stay at home.
But, a Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited official, and a spokeswoman at ExxonMobil’s Houston, Texas upstream operations center maintain that production in the region is normal.
“Production and loading are normal,” Houston-based spokeswoman Susan Reeves told Dow Jones in an e-mail Tuesday.
Reeves maintained the company’s policy of not discussing the specifics of security arrangements. She would not say whether personnel had been evacuated.
ExxonMobil has daily crude production in excess of 600,000 barrels a day in Nigeria. The leading producer in Nigeria, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, a joint venture between Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB.LN) and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNP.YY), has also been the greatest victim of the attacks, with 455,000 b/d of production shut in since February. Shell has said it isn’t in a hurry to resume production in the affected areas, until security concerns there are settled.
Militants seeking regional control of oil resources have continued their threats to resume a series of attacks that have cut off about a fifth of Nigeria’s crude production.
Mobil said last week production at its Yoho field was returning to normal after what the company called “operational event” that occurred the previous weekend.
Output from Yoho is currently put at about 150,000 b/d, with projected peak production of 165,000 b/d.
“For the errant oil companies that still choose to remain and operate in our lands and waters, we shall come like a thief in the night,” the militants warned in an e-mail late Thursday.
Apr252006