Lagos, Mar 24: US oil giant Chevrontexaco has shut down its main export terminal in Nigeria amid violent unrest in the Niger delta, cutting production by 440,000 barrels per day, the firm said today. "We do not consider it safe for our people to remain in the Western Niger delta, given the current situation," said Chevron Nigeria's managing director Jay Pryor, in a statement released here.
Chevrontexaco's massive Escravos terminal in the western delta, 320 kilometres southeast of Lagos, is at the heart of a web of oil wells in the coastal swamps and offshore in the Gulf of Guinea. For ten days it has also been at the Centre of a blood ethnic conflict between the rival Itsekiri and Ijaw ethnic groups. Armed Ijaw militants have also clashed with the Nigerian military and attacked oil facilities.
Separately, the Anglo-Dutch firm Shell and France's Totalfinaelf have confirmed shutting down facilities producing 195,000 barrels per day, a figure that is widely expected to rise. Taken together, the confirmed production shortfall accounts for more than a quarter of the two million barrels of crude Africa's largest oil producer exports daily.
The shutdown comes at a time when the war in Iraq already has world markets on edge. Analysts have warned that problems at a second major exporter could force prices skyward. Bureau Report