By Tom Ashby
Lagos - Militants whose attacks have shut a quarter of Nigerian oil output threatened on Friday to execute anyone found on previously attacked oil platforms operated by Royal Dutch Shell.
The threat came as the oil giant said it hoped to return staff to an abandoned offshore oilfield in Nigeria within days.
The Nigerian government has been putting pressure on Western multinationals, particularly Shell, to send workers back to fields abandoned after a string of attacks and kidnappings in February.
"Anyone found on Shell platforms previously attacked will be executed," the militant Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said in an email to Reuters.
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But Shell's exploration and production chief Malcolm Brinded said he was encouraged by talks between the government and leaders from the Niger Delta designed to resolve the crisis.
"We have got to go and review the assets when the security situation allows, but I am hopeful that will be soon," Brinded told reporters at an oil conference in Paris, referring to the EA field off Nigeria's Atlantic coast.
"We think that within a few days we can safely return."
Militants waging a four-month campaign of sabotage and kidnapping against the world's eighth largest oil exporter have forced multinationals to close 550 000 barrels a day since February 18, also hitting domestic power generation and refining.
The heavily armed militants, who roam the maze of mangrove-lined creeks in speed boats, have repeatedly threatened more attacks and clashed sporadically with troops since then.
They say their demands are more autonomy over the delta's huge oil revenue, $1,5-billion in compensation from Shell for oil spills and the release of two jailed ethnic Ijaw leaders.
The loss of high quality Nigerian oil - most of it pumped by Shell - has contributed to a rally in oil prices towards a $70 a barrel record high.
US oil fell as much as $1,11 to $66,83 per barrel on Friday after Brinded's comments, but recovered to $67,30 later. Nigeria is the world's eighth biggest crude exporter and a major supplier to the United States.
Nigeria's Minister of State for Petroleum Edmund Daukoru, also in Paris, said he was optimistic the 120 000 barrels per day EA field would be back by the beginning of next week and also hoped the rest would be restored in "about a month".
Dimieari Von Kemedi, an Ijaw activist, said Shell was wrong to rush back to the oilfield before tensions had eased, and called on MEND to engage in dialogue.
"Any good manager would allow things to calm down before moving back," he said.
Brinded said he was encouraged by Wednesday's meeting between President Olusegun Obasanjo and leaders from the area which resolved to draw up an action plan for developing the region within two weeks.
It was boycotted by MEND and other prominent delta activists.
The government has dismissed the militants as "rascals" and oil thieves, but their demands are shared by many in the impoverished region.
Frustration at government neglect has fuelled a cycle of killing, sabotage, extortion and kidnapping against the government and the oil industry, prompting military reprisals in which innocent civilians are frequently killed.
Additional reporting by Tom Bergin and Barbara Lewis
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