Shell Opens Its Books on Nigeria

Shell has bowed to pressure from Tony Blair and human rights campaigners by publishing details of payments made to the Nigerian government, which amounted to $900m (£630m) last year.

The information is included in a new report on its operations in the turbulent west African nation, which also shows the Anglo-Dutch company produced 15.5m tonnes of greenhouse gases .

The 2002 financial details -included for the first time in such a report - are attributed to various petroleum taxes and other "levies".

The 2001 figure was even higher at $1.2bn.

On Tuesday Mr Blair called once again for oil companies and governments - particularly those in developing countries - to be more transparent in their dealings with one another.

Shell made little effort to hide its conversion to a new way of doing business. "This is a step towards us being more open and transparent in line with the initiatives put forward in the Publish What You Pay and Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative documents," said a Shell spokesman last night.

Christian Aid, which recently produced a study called Fuelling poverty: oil, war and corruption, welcomed the move from Shell.

"It is to be welcomed when companies volunteer this kind of information but what is needed is regulation that makes it mandatory," said Andrew Pendleton, who co-authored the charity's report.

Under the operating agreements between Shell and the Nigerian government, the oil major receives a fixed margin per barrel depending on the global price of crude. At an oil price of $19 per barrel, for instance, the government takes $13.78 per barrel.

BP had previously disclosed payments made in Angola but generally oil companies are wary of doing so, citing competitive pressures.

The Shell document reveals high level of CO<->2 emissions, although they have fallen from 22.5m in 2001 and 22m in 2000.

The volumes result from Shell flaring off unwanted gas associated with oil produced and a spokesman said it was determined to end this.

"We are committed to putting out the flares by 2008 and are making good progress towards achieving this," said a a spokesman.