Nigeria in Talks With Shell Over Onshore Divestment Plans
- Company shouldn’t ‘hurriedly divest’ says petroleum minister
- Energy giant has been entangled in legal disputes in Nigeria
Shell Chief Executive Officer Ben van Beurden
Photographer: Kyrre Lien/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Nigeria is encouraging Royal Dutch Shell Plc to keep its onshore oil and gas business in the country instead of divesting it, as the company seeks to focus more on cleaner energy and offshore production.
While the government is in discussions with Shell about its future in the country, “some actually feel also that Shell should not hurriedly divest and to at least stay” onshore, Timipre Sylva, Nigerian minister of state for petroleum resources, told reporters in Abuja. To have a situation “where Shell has completely divested from a sector is not good for us.”