We have been notified of the abduction of an expatriate staff working for the contractor (Julius Berger) handling the Gbaran/Ubie project in Bayelsa State. The staff, working with Westminster Dredging, a sub-contractor to Julius Berger was reportedly taken away by youths who invaded the site of the company yesterday morning.
We recognise the immense strain placed on the hostage, his family and the contractors under the present circumstances. We continue to cooperate with the authorities and the contractors and offer every assistance we can to secure the safe release of the hostage.
A meeting of the Nigeria Crisis Team was held this morning to review this hostage incident and other security issues in our areas of operation. We wish to assure all staff and our stakeholders that every effort is being made to ensure the restoration of normalcy in our operations as speedily as possible.
Oil producing facilities in SPDC�s Western operation area, as well as the SNEPCO-operated EA field, remain shut down. Efforts continue on plans to restart operations in these areas. However, whilst the resumption of operations is important for Shell, Nigeria and the local communities, we will not restart our production operations until it is safe to do so. We take the security of our staff, contractors and the communities in which we work very seriously, and we will do everything we can to ensure they are not put at risk.