Fire still rages after Shell Nigeria pipeline blast

Paris (Platts)--21Dec2005

Shell Wednesday said a fire that engulfed a pipeline allegedly sabotaged
Tuesday by unknown persons in the southern Niger Delta region still rages and
that it is still unable to confirm the number of casualties.

      "We understand that a Joint Investigating Team, Clean Nigeria Assce,
pipeline repair group are to visit the site today. We are of course concerned
by the incident and if lives have been lost as a result but we are still
unable to confirm causalties," a company spokeswoman said. 

     Shell Tuesday was forced to close two oilfields and shut in 170,000 b/d
of crude output after an attack on the pipeline, which is located in the Opobo
Channel in Nigeria's southern delta and feeds into the Bonny terminal, where
the benchmark sulfur sweet crude oil is exported. 

     The company earlier Wednesday said it had shut in a third flowstation so
as to help curb the fire, taking total lost production to 180,000 b/d. Local
authorities said eight people have been killed and many more are missing after
the pipeline was destroyed with dynamite.

     The spokeswoman said Shell's medical team was on stand-by in the oil
city, Port Harcourt. 

     Andoni local government area chairman Monwan Etete said that youths in
four speed-boats had warned residents of local fishing villages to leave their
homes on Monday night -- shortly before the attack, the BBC reported
Wednesday. He said that 21 villages had been affected and that some of those
killed were children. 

     Etete said he thought a local militia -- the Niger Delta People's
Volunteer Force -- may be behind the attacks. 

     The NDPVF say it wants independence for the region. Its leader Mujahid
Dokubo-Asari is in prison on treason charges.

		--Jacinta Moran, jacinta_moran@platts.com

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