This is news concerning ChevronTexaco but issued by a ChevronTexaco subsidiary, Texaco Overseas (Nigeria) Petroleum Company Unlimited, and archived here for record purpose.
LAGOS, Nov. 24, 2003 -- Texaco Overseas (Nigeria) Petroleum Company Unlimited, (TOPCON) can confirm that all 18 workers held hostage on board the Middleton and Pennington offshore platforms have regained their freedom. The release of hostages was completed when senior officials of Bayelsa State Government turned over the remaining two hostages to a company management team in Yenagoa, the state capital Saturday, November 22.
Oil production has also resumed at Funiwa platform, one of four offshore facilities shut-in and evacuated November 19. The remaining platforms -- North Apoi, Middleton, and Pennington -- are expected to resume production within the week.
"We believe we will be producing up to 10,000 bopd by tomorrow," said Supo Shadiya, Production Operations Manager at ChevronTexaco's Escravos base. "By the end of the week, we should be producing most of the 23,000 bopd shut-in because of this incident," Mr. Shadiya confirmed.
Yesterday, TOPCON Managing Director, Chuck Taylor thanked the Federal and Bayelsa State governments as well as NNPC for their engagement throughout the platform occupation episode. "We are relieved that all of our employees are now safe," he said.