Fri, 19 Oct 2007

The new wave of rising violence in Nigeria's Niger Delta region has made the oil giant Shell to withdraw staff from its oil facilities.

The Anglo-Dutch oil enterprise has evacuated 254 of its non-essential staff, reported BBC on Friday.

The oil giant decided to pull out its employees from Delta as the operations of military and police forces against armed groups increased.

Though Nigeria is the sixth largest crude producer within the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), almost 70% of its population is poor.

The workers of the company in Soku and Ekulama oil facilities were evacuated due to tense security situation.

Half of Nigeria's crude is produced by Shell, but no disruption in oil production has been reported.

Local authorities say that the militants are stealing and smuggling crude resulting in an annual loss of about 10% of the total oil revenue.

source




militants fighting for Nigerian oil