The Anglo-Dutch giant Shell has begun pumping oil from a massive new field off the coast of Nigeria which will produce 225,000 barrels per day. Development of the Bonga field was hit by long delays and cost overruns, but Shell now hopes to rapidly reach peak capacity and boost the west African country's total oil production by ten percent.
Nigeria is already Africa's biggest oil exporter and produces more than 2.5 million barrels per day. The government hopes to increase production to four million barrels per day by 2010.
Production in Bonga will focus on a floating oil rig and storage ship known as a floating production, storage and offloading vessel or FPSO. Anchored to the ocean floor 120 kilometres (70 miles) off the delta coast, the giant tanker is at the centre of a network of 12 oil wells on the sea floor 1,000 metres below. Oil and gas is pumped to the surface and stored on board the FPSO, from where it is transferred directly to tankers for export to Europe and the Americas.