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According to
Reuters, Royal Dutch Shell is planning to sell oilfields in Nigeria
valued at up to $5 billion, first reported by the Sunday Times, citing sources
linked to companies interested in the asset. The newspaper said the auction
comes as Nigeria prepares to impose harsher terms on foreign operators and hand
greater control to domestic firms. The company is the biggest and longest
standing Western oil producer in Nigeria. But production has been hampered by
insecurity in the oil-rich Niger Delta,
government funding shortfalls and an uncertain regulatory environment. The
report coincided with a group led by Shell pledging to spend tens of billions
of dollars developing Iraq''s Majnoon super-giant oilfield over the next two
decades. Shell has switched investment from Nigeria, which supplied 16 percent
of its 2008 oil production, in response to growing violence from militants and
a souring of relations with the government.
