San Leon Energy - Re: SLE Stream Log - By Tife Owolabi and Libby...

By Tife Owolabi and Libby George LAGOS/LONDON, Nigeria (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell has shut down an Escravos crude oil flow station in Nigeria's Niger Delta after villagers demanding aid staged a protest, the firm and residents said on Wednesday. In another blow to the oil major, the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) militant group said it had attacked the Forcados crude export line. Shell said the flow station on the pipeline operated by its joint-venture partner SPDC was no longer processing crude oil, but the impact on Escravos exports, which can run via other routes, was not immediately clear. Protest leader Shyne Edema said his group was demonstrating at the facility, shutting down power and water supplies as well as crude production, to press Shell into providing aid. This is a common refrain in the neglected region that provides much of Nigeria's oil output. "Today is the eighth day of the protest," he said. "We have laid siege at the facility from dusk to dawn since then. We are there now as I speak." He said the protesters complained about Shell's "neglect of its social responsibility of providing good roads, water and electricity for its host communities where none of these things exist."