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Nigeria suspends 380,000 bpd oil exports after attack
Royal Dutch Shell suspended exports from the 380,000 barrel-a-day Forcados terminal on Saturday after militants bombed the tanker loading platform, a senior oil industry source said.The company is still trying to ascertain the damage to the platform, which is located three miles offshore, but has already begun shutting oilfields in the area which feed the terminal, the source added. "Of course no ships can go near there now. This is going to be a major deferment," the senior industry source said. "If we can't export, we can't produce," he added. Nigeria is the world's eighth largest oil exporter and normally pumps about 2.4 million barrels per day. The militant Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, which is fighting for more local control over the Niger Delta's oil wealth, claimed responsibility for Saturday's attacks, which also included the kidnapping of nine foreign workers and the bombing of two pipelines. President Olusegun Obasanjo has called a meeting of oil industry and security chiefs to discuss the crisis later on Saturday, the source said. Posted by: lotp 2006-02-18 |
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