Shell says Nigeria oil force majeure, no Y2K link http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/000103/ba.html

A Shell source from Warri said the trunk line serving Opukushi, Ogbotobo and Tunu flowstations had been forced to close with the loss of up to 120,000 bpd in production.

The Shell official in Lagos said it the company faced no Y2K problems at either Forcados or its other export terminal at southeastern Bonny.

Declaring force majeure means Shell cannot guarantee to meet all its previous export commitments at Forcados.

Shell and other oil firms working in the volatile Niger Delta have faced an upsurge of attacks on oil installations in recent years which have forced repeated disruptions to oil production.

Also: IBM Year 2000 Alert http://www-4.ibm.com/software/year2000/alert/20000101050414.html

Also two other reports possibly Y2k related??? Blast raises fears of toxins after freight trains collide http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/pages/991231/3370480.html

Fireballs rock power station http://www.news.com.au/news_content/dhs/4134335.htm

-- Nick Laird (sharefin@cairns.net.au), January 03, 2000

Answers

Hi

I think I believe Shell on this one. They were featured in a major spread in the New York Times a few months ago talking about the Niger Delta, featuring the manager in charge. Quite unorthodox from a Western perspective! In the context of the article, while y2k was not mentioned, even if had created a computer meltdown, y2k would have been the least of their problems!

-- Bud Hamilton (budham@hotmail.com), January 03, 2000.

more on this story:

Communities not Y2K bug Nigerian oil production

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), January 04, 2000.

Saskatoon, SK

Freight trains collide..

This accident was caused by a derailment, which is common in Canada during the winter, and not by Y2K factors.

The incident received extensive news coverage in Canada and highly placed officials within Canadian National Rail have confirmed that a derailment was the cause of the accident.

-- Michael Dudar (mdudar@netcom.ca), January 04, 2000.