“We have resumed operation at the Cawthorne Channel in the eastern Niger Delta. Some 18,000 barrels per day are now fully restored,\” the spokesman told AFP.
He said some 9,000 barrels are still shut in at the Ekulama 1 flow-station following last week\’s bloody attack by militants in the region.
The facility was attacked on October 2 by around 70 heavily-armed militants, killing 14 soldiers and kidnapping 25 workers who were released the following day.
The company spokesman said the Anglo-Dutch oil giant was still losing some 477,000 bpd in daily output in Nigeria because of the Niger Delta crisis. Since January, separatist agitators claiming to be fighting for a greater share of Nigeria\’s oil and gas multi-billion-dollar wealth for the 14 million ethnic Ijaw people have renewed their attacks on oil facilities and personnel.
Shell is Nigeria\’s major oil operator, accounting for around half of the country\’s total oil production, but has been forced to shut down most of its oil wells because of frequent militant attacks.
Nigeria is Africa\’s biggest oil producer and the world\’s fifth largest exporter with some 2.6 million barrels per day, but a quarter of that figure has been lost to unrest in the Niger Delta.