Royal Dutch Shell aims to resume operations at the Forcados oil export terminal in Nigeria next month, more than a year after it was shut by militant attacks, the company said on Monday.
Shell's comments followed the ending on Saturday of a strike that threatened to hit oil exports from Africa's top producer, where about a quarter of output is shut due to militant attacks and sabotage.
Eurwen Thomas, a Shell spokeswoman, said that an earlier plan to export crude from the Forcados terminal in June had not been carried out because of security concerns.
"The delivery of crude from Forcados early June could not hold as planned due to heightened security warnings from government," she said. "We now plan to lift crude from that terminal in July 2007."
A restart would add to supply of Nigerian crude, prized by oil refiners as it is easy to process into fuels. Lower output since 2006 has boosted world oil prices and prompted Shell to trim production forecasts.
Oil prices fell on Monday due to the end of the strike and the plan for Forcados exports to restart. Brent crude was down $1.09 at $70.09 a barrel at 1150 GMT. Shell has said that early shipments of Forcados crude will be of oil held in storage and analysts expect the restart of production to take time.
"We need a step-by-step approach to a restart and don't comment on all the individual steps on the restart of production nor on crude export," Thomas said.
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