Politics & Social Unrest

Nigeria’s state oil company and partners spent $360 million on Delta cleanup: NNPC

February 19, 2020 | Health, Safety & Environment, Nigeria, Politics & Social Unrest

Yenagoa, Nigeria | –  Nigeria’s state oil company and its joint venture partners have spent $360 million on cleaning up the Niger Delta oil heartland in the past two years, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said on Monday, but locals said little work had been done. Nigeria is Africa’s biggest crude oil exporter. Oil sales account for around 90% of its foreign currency earnings but oil spills in the southern Niger Delta region have caused pollution and angered locals. Royal Dutch Shell Plc was …

Nigeria moves to recover 35,000bpd lost to Shell JV, Belema oil dispute

October 01, 2019 | Government & Regulations, Nigeria, Politics & Social Unrest

Port Harcourt, Nigeria |  – The Nigerian government says it is determined to continue to extract over 35,000 barrels per day of crude oil output lost to a community dispute in the Niger Delta region. A dispute between Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Joint Venture partner, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), Belema Oil and communities around oil mining lease (OML) 25 in Rivers State led to the disruption of operations in the area. Apart from the shutdown of the Belema Flow Station, about 35,000 barrels …

Libya’s NOC warns of ‘catastrophic’ consequences if Sharara oilfield halted

December 09, 2018 | Libya, Politics & Social Unrest

Tripoli/Benghazi, Libya | – Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) warned on Sunday of “catastrophic consequences” if the El Sharara oilfield is brought to a complete halt by a tribesmen protest. Should the 315,000 barrel-a-day field shut down, it would take a long time to bring it back on stream and production from another field would also be affected, the state oil firm said. “Shutting down production at the El Sharara field will have catastrophic, long-term consequences, it would take a long time to resume production …

Libya UN-backed government says oil exports by rival administration ‘illegal’

June 27, 2018 | Libya, Politics & Social Unrest

London, UK | – Libya’s UN-backed government warned on Tuesday that any oil exports by a rival administration in the east would be illegal after the region’s military strongman handed over its key export ports. “All exports by parallel institutions are illegal and any attempt will fail just as previous ones have,” said the head of Libya’s National Oil Corporation Mustafa Sanallah. The self-styled Libyan National Army of Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar announced on Monday that all future revenues from the eastern oil ports which …

Protesters say they briefly shut three ENI oil wells in Nigeria

December 12, 2017 | Company Operations, Nigeria, Politics & Social Unrest

Yenogoa, Nigeria | –  Protesters briefly shut three oil wells owned by Italy’s ENI in the Niger Delta region of south-south Nigeria over the weekend and could try do so again, a community leader said on Tuesday. Timiondi Fabofighe, chairman of the Ikebiri Community Development Committee (CDC), said the protests, against the presence of multinational oil companies in Nigeria’s oil production heartland, took place at ENI’s subsidiary Agip in Bayelsa state. ENI declined to comment. It was not immediately clear if the protests had affected …

Shell helped Nigeria’s military to commit human rights abuses – Amnesty

November 28, 2017 | Health, Safety & Environment, Nigeria, Politics & Social Unrest

London, UK | – Oil giant Shell should be investigated for alleged complicity in” horrific crimes” committed by the military in Nigeria in the 1990s, Amnesty International has said. Shell encouraged a crackdown, which led to killings and the burning of villages in the oil-producing Ogoniland region of Nigeria’s restive Niger Delta, the rights group added. The Anglo-Dutch oil supermajor said the allegations were “without merit”. The region was hit by protests over oil pollution and poverty in the 1990s. It led to a massive …

Iraq, Iran, Turkey to decide together on shutting down Kurdistan’s oil

October 05, 2017 | Middle East, Politics & Social Unrest

Erbil, Kurdistan Region, Iraq |  – Iraq, Iran, and Turkey are solidifying their unity against the Kurdistan Region, threatening joint action to shut down the Region’s oil exports in reaction to Kurdistan’s independence referendum, according to the Turkish president. “In the case of northern Iraq, Iran, Iraq and Turkey will form a tripartite mechanism and will decide on shutting down the oil,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters on a return flight on Thursday after a visit to Tehran, Hurriyet Daily News reported. Oil-dependent Kurdistan …

Protesters storm Shell crude flow station in Niger Delta

August 15, 2017 | Nigeria, Politics & Social Unrest

Port Harcourt, Nigeria  | – Hundreds of Nigerian protesters stormed a crude oil flow station and gas plant owned by Shell in the restive Niger Delta oil hub yesterday, demanding jobs and infrastructure development, a Reuters witness said. Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC),  a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell Plc said in a statement that it had already shut down the facilities due to security threats before they were stormed. The protesters complained that they were not benefiting from oil production in their …