Wed Oct 31, 2007 9:10 AM BST
CAPE TOWN, Oct 31 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile , Research) said on Wednesday that crude oil theft at sites in Nigeria was rising, posing a problem for development and a safety risk for those engaging in the practice.
“It is on the rise again,” Ann Pickard, regional executive vice-president for Shell Exploration & Production Africa Ltd., said at the Africa Upstream 2007 oil conference in Cape Town.
Shell, the world’s second-largest non government-controlled oil company by market capitalisation, is among a handful of oil majors affected by political unrest in Nigeria, the largest oil producer in Africa.
In 2006 the company shut down oilfields pumping about 500,000 barrels a day in the Niger Delta, a heartland for the west African nation’s oil sector, after attacks by a group called the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta.
MEND, which is campaigning for spill compensation, also claimed responsibility for an attack on the offshore EA oilfield earlier this month in which seven workers contracted to Shell were abducted for two days.
The EA field, which can pump 115,000 bpd, has been closed since an earlier attack in February 2006.
MEND had observed a ceasefire since the inauguration of President Umaru Yar’Adua in May, who promised to address armed groups’ grievances of poverty and neglect.
But it threatened to resume kidnappings and attacks after the arrest last month of one of its leaders, Henry Okah, in Angola on gun running charges.
Pickard said Shell was slowly returning to the region, but continued to see security as a top priority there.
© Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved.
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Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
