Royal Dutch Shell in Nigeria

Royal Dutch Shell in Nigeria

Introduction

Prior to 2001, Royal Dutch Shell was the largest oil company in the world. Now on the second line of the rating, it has moved there only after the merger of two American giants - Exxon and Mobil. Currently, about 2,000 companies are included in the group Royal Dutch Shell, and are for exploration and production of oil and natural gas, also engaged in the sale of petroleum products and chemicals in more than 50 countries. 

Shell companies include Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Ltd. (SNEPCO), Shell petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd. (SPDC), Shell Nigeria Oil Products Ltd. (SNOP), Shell Nigeria Gas Ltd. (SNG) and Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Company Ltd. (NLNG). It accounts for about 7% of the world production of hydrocarbons. If Exxon and Mobil were, formed after the collapse of the empire of Rockefeller, the birth of Shell would have hardly been possible without the participation of the Rothschild family.

Discussion

2006 year began for Royal Dutch Shell with exacerbation of old unresolved issues. In February, gunmen stormed the Nigerian seized oil-loading platform Forkados owned company, which holds about 4 million barrels of crude oil. In addition, the rebels took hostage nine oil and blew up the pipeline that supplies oil to the platform. "Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta," the activists who organized the attack, more than once chose Shell assets as its primary target. 

Over recent years, militants have repeatedly staged kidnapping employees who blocked the work of its Nigerian offices, demanding the redistribution of oil revenues for the benefit of local government areas of the South, where there are oil platforms. In August 2000, the rebels took hostage 165 employees of two oilrigs of Shell. In December 2005, they blasted area of ??the pipeline, owned by the company (Treanor, 2009).

In January 2006, they organized the first series of attacks on oil loading platforms located on Nigerian bogs, resulting in the company to be, forced to evacuate a few hundred workers.

After the February, attacks on oil facilities Royal Dutch Shell had to drastically, reduce oil production in Nigeria - by 455 thousand barrels per day. For two days, oil production in this country, which ranked eighth in the world in terms of exports of oil, fell by 20%. Again, everything started talking seriously about a possible jump in oil prices. After all, only on the news of the Nigerian attack price for Brent crude on London Stock Exchange rose by $ 1.1.

After only a few days, it became, known that the Nigerian court in addition to all fined the company Royal Dutch Shell for $ 1.5 billion for the damage the region's ecology. According to authorities, Shell was behind the constant leakage of oil, which, falling into the rivers and swamps of the Niger Delta was destroying crops and killing the locals fish (Anaba, 2010). "This company should be responsible for environmental degradation," - the court decided, thus supporting the decision to the Nigerian parliament, had earlier expressed by Shell for the imposition of severe penalties, as ...