Reports from Nigeria say protesting ethnic Ijaw youths have vacated some of the Royal Dutch/Shell oil facilities in the southeast that they have been occupying.

However, Shell's output is still being affected and the company has been unable to meet its crude export commitments.

The protest started in early October when the group seized about twenty facilities in the south of the country.

They were angry at the relocation of a local council headquarters from an Ijaw to an Itsekiri area and believed that occupying the stations would force the government to concede to their demand for a new local government office.