Royal Dutch Shell Plc, operator of Nigeria’s largest oil venture, has yet to see a rebound in output after a three-month truce that’s quelled violence in the country’s crude producing region, production reports show.

Combined output from ventures operated by Shell Development Production
Co. and Shell Nigeria and Exploration and Production Co. fell 10
percent to 410,690 barrels a day at the end of October from early
September, according to reports obtained by Bloomberg News. Precious
Okolobo, a Shell spokesman in Nigeria, declined to comment on the
figures. “We continue to repair facilities to try and bring up
production,” he said.

Attacks on pumping stations and pipelines have waned since a government
amnesty for rebels started in August. The Movement for the Emancipation
of the Niger Delta, the main group fighting for a greater distribution
of oil revenue to local people, pledged an “indefinite cease-fire” on
Oct. 25. Violence over the past three years cut Nigeria’s oil
production more than 25 percent.

Shell and other oil companies “would be waiting to see if the amnesty
is durable” before reopening facilities, Sebastian Spio-Garbrah, Africa
analyst at Eurasia Group in New York, said by e-mail. Shell “probably
won’t put money into repairs until they get a better sense of” how the
peace is holding.

Shell Development Production, or SDPC, holds a 30 percent stake in
Nigeria’s largest oil production venture, which produced 260,000
barrels a day in the week ending Oct. 27, compared with 267,000 in the
week ending Sept. 10. Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. holds a 55
percent stake, Total SA has 10 percent and Eni SpA 5 percent.

Bonny Light

The group’s output of Bonny Light grade oil dropped to 156,000 barrels
a day, from 177,000 barrels. Forcados production recovered to 104,000
barrels a day from 49,000. Output from the EA field was zero at the end
of last month compared with 41,000 barrels in September. Shell said on
Sept. 9 it shut the field for repairs. The EA field was shut for more
than three years after a rebel attack in January 2006 before it resumed
in July.

Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production, or Snepco, operates the
offshore Bonga field for a group that includes Nigerian National
Petroleum, known as NNPC, Total, Eni and Exxon Mobil Corp. Production
fell to 150,690 barrels a day in week ended Oct. 27 from 190,740
barrels in early September, according to the production report.

Production by a separate venture owned by Total and NNPC, was 159,286
barrels a day at the end of October, 21 percent higher than 131,036
recorded early in September, according to the report. Total, the
operator, holds a 40 percent stake in the venture with 60 percent held
by NNPC.

Akpo Field

Production at Total’s offshore Akpo field jumped 21 percent to 145,090
barrels a day at the end of October from 119,754 barrels per day early
in September, the report showed.

Paris-based Total spokeswoman Phenelope Semavoine declined to comment on the figures.

Exxon, Chevron and Eni also operate oil production ventures with NNPC. The report didn’t give production figures for these.

Nigeria, vying with Angola as Africa’s largest oil producer, pumped a
total of 1.875 million barrels day of oil in October, up from 1.805
million in September, according to Bloomberg production estimates.

Shipments of Nigeria’s 15 biggest crude grades will average 2 million
barrels a day in November, according to tanker loading schedules.
December exports are scheduled at 1.98 million barrels a day.

Shell is the longest-standing international oil company in Nigeria,
where it gained a nationwide exploration license in 1938. The company
shipped its first oil from the country in 1958. In 2003, SPDC-led
operations in Nigeria reached a daily production total of more 1
million barrels.

Source: Bloomberg

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