30 November 2011, Sweetcrude, LAGOS – Anglo-Dutch oil group Shell said Wednesday it had shut down a key oilfield in southern part of Nigeria for maintenance that could last “several weeks.”
“We shut down the Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) unit on November 9 for scheduled routine maintenance which could last several weeks,” Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) spokesman Precious Okolobo told AFP.
He declined to give the volume of crude shut in as a result of the closure, but media reported that 115,000 barrels per day had been affected.
SPDC, a Shell subsidiary, operates a joint venture in Nigeria in which the state-run oil giant NNPC has a major stake.
Shell is historically the country’s largest producer.
Currently, Nigeria IS producing about 2.4 million barrels per day, derives more than 90 percent of its foreign exchange earnings from oil.
