Offshore staff

(West Africa) - Royal Dutch Shell hopes to send personnel back soon to offshore Niger Delta, which was closed following rebel attacks two months ago.

Militants, however, warned the company against any return, threatening to execute anyone found on Shell's previously attacked platforms in the EA field.

"We have got to go and review the assets (of the EA field) when the security situation allows, but I am hopeful that will be soon," Shell's E&P chief Malcolm Brinded told reporters at an oil conference.

"We think that within a few days we can safely return."

"Anyone found on Shell platforms previously attacked will be executed," the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta wrote in an e-mail to a news agency.

They say their demands are more autonomy over the delta's huge oil revenue, $1.5 billion in compensation from Shell for oil spills, and the release of two jailed ethnic Ijaw leaders.

Brinded says a solution to the conflict in the Niger Delta appeared closer after a meeting this week between Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and community leaders from the area.

The meeting resolved to draw up an action plan within two weeks for developing the region, but it was boycotted by MEND and many other activist groups.