Nigeria ranks high on Shell’s disappointment list

Global oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has reaffirmed the negative impact the surge in oil theft and sabotage in Nigeria has had on its performance in the past 12 months.

Peter Voser, chief executive officer, Shell, in an interview published on Wednesday on the company’s website indicated that Nigeria contributed significantly to the slump in its performance in the past one year.

“Things have been difficult in Nigeria, due to ongoing sabotage and security issues. We have seen underperformance at various production sites, such as those in the North Sea and at refineries in the USA,” he said, when asked what the disappointments of the past 12 months were.

Voser, who will step down at the end of this year as the company’s CEO, said they were working on the performance issues. “We have improvement programmes in place. These are about focus, speed and concentrating on the right things. I am confident that these programmes will be implemented successfully over the coming quarters.”

Continuing, he said, “We made great progress towards our long-term objectives. Shell will be launching 17 key projects over the next two years, geared to fulfilling our commitment to increase cash flow.”

It would be recalled that Shell’s second-quarter profit slumped to $4.6 billion from $5.7 billion a year earlier partly due to disruptions in Nigeria.

“Higher costs, exploration charges, adverse currency exchange rate effects and challenges in Nigeria have hit our bottom line. These results were undermined by a number of factors – but they were clearly disappointing for Shell,” Voser had said.