Shell suspends retrenchment exercise

Martin Ayankola, Lagos- 14.02.2008

The Managing Director of Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited, Mr. Mutiu Sunmonu, said in Lagos on Tuesday night that the company had suspended its restructuring exercise which is expected to lead to some job cuts.

He, however, hinted that Shell would still go ahead with the exercise when it gets the understanding of the Federal Government and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

He said “restructuring is still on hold but I am very very confident that we will reach an amicable solution with our joint venture partner . We have had some very useful discussions, the understanding on both sides has improved significantly and I have a lot of confidence that we would reach a resolution on the impasse, within the shortest possible time”.

He stated that the company had been able to recover half of its 400,000 barrels per day production loss in its Western operations. Mr. Sunmonu said “In 2006, our entire production in the Western Division was completely shut down.

And that is something in the order of 400,000 barrels per day. But we have been able to claw back about half of that. So we still have between 150,000 bpd and 200,000 bpd still locked in. And we will continue to work on how to unlock the remaining barrels. But that will depend on how much funding we get to support our operations”.