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Oil flows after hostage crisis
25/11/2003 13:26 - (SA)
Lagos - US oil giant ChevronTexaco will this week resume the production of 23 000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil suspended last week in the wake of the abduction of 18 workers in southern Nigeria.
The company halted production at Middleton, Penington, North Apoi and Funiwa oilfields on Wednesday when militant youths from Bayelsa State took the workers hostage on offshore oil platforms.
The navy was able to secure the release of 16 of the workers two days later.
ChevronTexaco said in a statement on Tuesday that the remaining two workers were released on Saturday and that production will resume at all four oil platforms by the end of the week.
"By the end of the week, we should be producing most of the 23 000 bpd shut-in because of the incident," it said.
Production of 10 000 bpd was expected to resume at one of the platforms on Tuesday.
ChevronTexaco is Nigeria's third largest oil company, accounting for about 750 000 bpd of the west African country's daily output of some two million barrels.
The company commended the state government and security agents for their efforts to resolve the hostage-taking, the latest by militant youths in oil-rich but troubled Niger delta region.
In March, more than 100 expatriate and many more Nigerian oil workers were taken hostage by local militiamen in the region.
The kidnappers usually demand ransoms before their victims are released, but oil firms deny paying them.
- AFP
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