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Already strapped Shell may lose 2.5 million barrels/day, almost equal to Iran’s 3 million barrels/day exports

By Daniel Howden http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article339109.ece
Published: 17 January 2006
The oil giant Royal Dutch Shell was considering
pulling out of the volatile Niger Delta region yesterday
after heavily armed militants stormed one of its
facilities and killed at least 17 people.
The attack early on Sunday, the latest during an
upsurge of violence in the oil-rich swamp area, came
only days after the kidnap of four foreign oil workers.
Militant groups demanding local control of oil wealth
warned Shell to withdraw immediately from the
world’s eighth largest oil exporter.
The Anglo-Dutch company has already pulled out 330
employees after gunmen in speedboats overran the
Benisede flow station on Sunday. “The attackers
invaded the flow-station in speed boats, burnt down
two staff accommodations, damaged the processing
facilities and left,” Shell said in a statement yesterday.