July 31 (Bloomberg) -- Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe's largest oil company by market value, said militant attacks have shut 220,000 barrels a day of crude output in Nigeria.

Daily output of 220,000 barrels is stopped as of today, including 42,000 barrels after a pipeline attack on July 28, Chief Executive Officer Jeroen van der Veer said in a telephone conference. That's up from the 195,000 barrels a day that was halted in the first and second quarters, he said.

Attacks on pipelines and production facilities in the oil- rich Niger Delta have disrupted production since 2006. Groups such as the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND, are targeting facilities run by Shell, the biggest foreign producer in the country. Last month, militants attacked Shell's Bonga field, which is 120 kilometers (75 miles) away from the Nigerian coast.

Attacking so far offshore ``is definitely new'' as a tactic, van der Veer said today. ``This is taken extremely seriously by all those operators who have offshore facilities'' because ``we hadn't expected that.''

Nigeria typically produces the light, sweet crude type favored by refiners for its gasoline yield.

Shell's production was cut by 42,000 barrels a day this week after an attack on the Nembe Creek pipeline. Shell declared so-called force majeure on Bonny Light crude deliveries in July, August and September following the sabotage, for which MEND claimed responsibility. Force majeure is a legal clause that allows producers to miss contracted deliveries because of circumstances beyond their control.

Shallow Fields

The company was forced to shut production at the deep-water Bonga oil field on June 19, cutting about 200,000 barrels a day of output, after the production vessel was attacked. Militants had focused on onshore and shallow-water fields in the creeks of the Niger delta. Bonga production resumed on June 24.

Rebels have also targeted Chevron Corp., Exxon Mobil Corp. and Eni SpA. Chevron's onshore production was cut on June 19 after militants sabotaged a pipeline and 47,000 barrels a day of Eni's production was cut on July 17 after another pipeline attack. Shell's EA field has been closed since February 2006.

MEND's latest attack signals the end of a unilateral cease- fire it declared on June 24. The group said it would resume its campaign because it objects to an offer from the U.K. to help the government secure its oil facilities.

Petroleum Minister

Nigeria's production remains close to 2 million barrels a day, Nigerian Petroleum Minister of State H. Odein Ajumogobia said today. A report yesterday in ThisDay newspaper that the country is pumping less than 1 million barrels a day is ``not true at all,'' Ajumogobia said by telephone.

The country is scheduled to ship 1.94 million barrels a day of crude in September, including oil from Chevron 's new Agbami field, according to loading schedules obtained by Bloomberg.

Shell's onshore and shallow-water crude production in Nigeria is mainly operated by its Shell Petroleum Development Co. unit, in which it has a 30 percent stake. Exxon Mobil, Eni and the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. hold the remaining share. Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Co. operates the company's deepwater assets, including the Bonga field.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alexander Kwiatkowski in London at akwiatkowsk2@bloomberg.netEduard Gismatullin in London at egismatullin@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: July 31, 2008 14:00 EDT