By Austin Ekeinde
Port Harcourt - A protest by villagers at a major oil export pipeline complex in Nigeria entered a third day on Thursday and no crude was flowing through the facility, a protest leader said.
Villagers from K-Dere occupied the pipeline hub at Bomu, which feeds the Bonny shipping terminal, on Tuesday and forced Shell to shut 150 000 barrels per day of output.
"The lines are still shut. They are not flowing. We locked up the place and slept here last night," said Teddy Penedibebari, who is leading the protest.
Shell, the biggest foreign oil operator in Nigeria, had said it was "ramping up production" on Wednesday, but confirmed that output was still down by 150 000 bpd on Thursday.
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"We are hoping the situation will change shortly," a spokesperson said.
The protesters will not leave until Shell gives them contracts to supply the company with goods and services, Penedibebari said.
The same protesters, from the Ogoni area of the anarchic Niger Delta, had attacked the same pipeline hub on May 10 and occupied it for six days, forcing a 170 000 bpd closure.
Penedibebari previously said they demanded contracts worth 50-million naira (about R2,7-million), but one local activist source said the protesters had modified their demand on Thursday to 200-million naira in cash.
Shell suspended production in Ogoni 14 years ago because of popular protests, but the area is still criss-crossed by pipelines and many residents are still aggrieved about oil spills and what they see as a history of neglect.
Shell had only just resumed normal production levels at its 400 000 bpd Bonny terminal before Tuesday's attack on Bomu.
Exports remain under a force majeure, a legal measure exempting Shell from its contractual export obligations.
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