A Shell spokesman in Lagos said loadings had resumed late on last Friday after the local military administrator intervened to end the protests by communities demanding compensation money for a Mobil Corp spill.

"The dispute is with Mobil it is not with us," the spokesman said. The occupation of the terminal on last Thursday was part of wider unrest that has flared over the past week in the Niger Delta region where most of Nigeria's more than two million barrels per day (bpd) of crude is produced.

The unrest, spearheaded by ethnic Ijaw youths demanding compensation money for spills, amenities and a greater political say, have cut oil exports by up to one-third from the West African country of at least 104 million.

Military regime said it was highly worried by cases of destruction, breakdown of law and order and disruption of oil prospecting operations".