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Curse Of The Black Gold: 50 Years of Oil in the Niger Delta
Royal Dutch Shell has suspended its operations in the Western Niger Delta, giving into increasing pressure from the MEND rebels in the region.

Shell confirmed the closure of its oil plants in the region following a spike in attacks on the company’s facilities and employees, Nigerian media reported.

Speaking in Lagos, the financial capital of Nigeria, Vice-President of Shell’s Exploration and Production Africa Markus Droll expressed dissatisfaction with the current trend of oil and natural gas production in the country and said that insurgency in the Niger Delta had resulted in a massive loss of oil revenues.

“As I speak here, we have zero production in our western operations in the delta. We have completely closed down after the most recent attack in Forcados (western Niger Delta) on Monday. At the moment, we are trying to put out two well fires on some offshore platforms and that is essentially the stage of the last of the production in that area to be closed in.”


The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has recently stepped up its assaults on oil pipelines belonging to Royal Dutch Shell and issued warnings against foreign financiers in the state’s oil works.

The MEND eyes a bigger share in the country’s energy sales income and has vowed to continue abductions and attacks on foreign energy companies in a bid to attain leverage in possible future interactions with the government.

Attacks on oil facilities have crippled Nigeria’s oil production capacities in recent months, lowering the country’s fossil fuel output by 500,000 barrels per day (bpd).