Shell, the international oil and gas group, has appointed its outspoken managing director of Shell Nigeria, Brian Anderson, as chairman of Shell Companies in Greater China.
Mr Anderson, leaving what is described as one of the most difficult jobs in the Anglo-Dutch group, will be responsible for developing Shell's relationships with the Chinese authorities and nurturing the company's ambitions on the mainland.
Chief among these are plans for a petrochemical plant in Guangdong Province with China National Offshore Oil Corp that is said to be on the verge of approval.
This is seen as only a partial victory for the firm, as China dropped its support early this year for a US$6 billion project that was to have included an oil refinery and a petrochemical plant with a capacity of 160,000 barrels per day.
Plans for a refinery are still thought to be in the offing, and one of Mr Anderson's first jobs will be to try to establish a greater presence for Shell in China.
Mr Anderson hit world headlines in November 1995, after the Nigerian military government, with which the company was said to have close relations, hanged nine Ogoni minority rights activists, including writer Ken Saro-Wiwa.
Shell Nigeria, which accounts for about 50 per cent of Nigeria's total crude oil production of two million barrels per day, was vilified by human rights groups and environmental lobbyists for not using its perceived influence with the Nigerian Government to prevent the hangings.
