Royal Dutch Shell reported Wednesday that its Nigerian subsidiary, Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company, has started up oil production from the first well at the Bonga North West deep-water development off the country’s coast. Shell Upstream International Director Andrew Brown commented in a company statement: “This is an excellent addition to our deep-water portfolio – a key growth theme for Shell’s world-wide upstream business. It’s also good news for Nigeria, as it is a new source of oil revenues and strengthens Nigeria’s deep-water expertise, a key driver of economic development.” The original Bonga project began producing oil and gas in 2005. It was Nigeria’s first deep-water development in water depths of more than 3,250 feet. Bonga North West is the next step in the project’s development. The Bonga project, which began producing oil and gas in 2005, was Nigeria’s first deep-water development in water depths over 1,000 metres. […]