Shell increases output and security: Nigeria's largest oil partner is doing well under its local MD who has an intimate knowledge of the social tensions in the Delta region. Conflict continues but the outlook is promising.(Company Focus)

IN TERMS OF production, 2004 was a good year for Shell Petroleum Development Co of Nigeria Ltd. Oil production, according to its 2004 People and the Environment Annual Report averaged one million barrels per day compared to the 910,000 b/d of 2003, an increase of about ten per cent. The 2004 production ratio was the highest production achieved since 1980.

Shell Nigeria's gas sales also increased, with an average of 1,242mn standard cubic feet per day (scf/d) sold, a six per cent higher figure than the 1.71 mnscf/d of natural gas sold in 2003. And it did this in a challenging Niger Delta environment, according to Basil Omiyi, the first Nigerian Managing Director--a region where people: "Live with the impacts of oil and gas production, but despite the efforts of …