Mon Jan 16, 2006 11:38 AM GMT
By Tom Ashby

A senior industry source told Reuters that the Anglo-Dutch giant was considering more evacuations from its remote swamp locations after pulling out 330 workers from four oil flow stations due to a deadly attack on Sunday.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, also believed to be behind the kidnapping of four foreign staff last week, said it carried out Sunday's raid and advised oil workers to leave the delta, which produces almost all Nigeria's 2.4 million barrels a day of oil.

"It must be clear that the Nigerian government cannot protect your workers or assets. Leave our land while you can or die in it," the group said in an email statement.

"Our aim is to totally destroy the capacity of the Nigerian government to export oil."

The possibility of a major Shell staff pullout will increase pressure on President Olusegun Obasanjo's government to crack down on the militants, who are demanding more control over the region's oil revenues and the release of two Ijaw leaders.

Analysts say the increasing violence is also part of growing regional rivalry ahead of presidential elections in 2007.

Shell is the largest oil producer in Nigeria, which is key to U.S. hopes of reducing dependence on supplies from the volatile Gulf. A major staff pullout is likely to trigger more output cuts in the country, already hit by the attacks.

"I think (Shell will) have to evacuate the whole of the swamps around (the city of) Warri," the industry source told Reuters, adding a decision would be made on Monday.

A spokesman for Shell declined to comment. The company normally pumps 380,000 barrels a day from the Warri region -- three-quarters of it from the swamps.

POVERTY AND OIL

Violence against oil workers is frequent in the Niger Delta, which accounts for almost all of Nigeria's 2.4 million barrels a day production and where an estimated 20 million people live in poverty alongside a multi-billion-dollar industry.

Thousands of troops have been stationed in the vast wetlands region since 2003 when Ijaw militancy before national elections forced companies to shut 40 percent of Nigeria's output.

The evacuation of the 330 workers on Sunday had no impact on output because those flow stations were already closed after the militants bombed a nearby major crude oil pipeline last week. But it will delay repairs to the 100,000 barrel-a-day pipeline.

Multinational oil companies might consider more drastic withdrawals of workers from across the whole of the Niger Delta swamps if the attacks go on, said the source, asking not to be identified.

The government has tried to establish contact with the kidnappers of the four foreign oil workers -- an American, Briton, Bulgarian and Honduran -- but the militant group said it was not interested in their offers of "blood money".

"The leverage (the militants) have is the fact they have hostages. Without that, the military would have come in heavily," said the industry source.

Ruled by military dictators for most of its history since independence from Britain in 1960, Nigeria returned to civilian government in 1999, but ethnic militia and organised thuggery remain a feature of political life.

Much of the rhetoric of militant Niger Delta groups is echoed by regional politicians, who have demanded a greater share of Nigerian oil wealth and the right to pick the ruling party candidate for elections in 2007.

"This is a period when both sides who claim power in Nigeria are going to extremes," said Pini Jason, a newspaper columnist.

In a statement last week, the militants demanded the release of Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, an Ijaw militia leader who faces treason charges, and Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, a former delta governor who was impeached last month for money laundering.