Royal Dutch Shell said on Thursday it had recovered the body of another catering contractor for the company four days after the attack on one of its flow stations in Nigeria's troubled Niger Delta.

"Regrettably we can now confirm that the body of another civilian victim, missing since the attack on the Benisede flow station, has been found," a Shell statement said.

"He was a Shell catering contractor. Our deepest sympathies go to his family and friends," it added.

Shell had earlier confirmed the fatality of a catering contractor during the attack, while news reports said at least 13 people died as soldiers protecting the flow station exchanged fire with armed men on Sunday.

Currently, Shell was losing a total of 221,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd), or about nine percent of Nigeria's total output, due to the resurgence of crisis in the last one month in the Niger Delta, where the majority of the country's oil is produced.

Meanwhile, Shell said it continued to cooperate with the Nigerian authorities to secure the safe release of the four hostages, a Briton, an American, a Bulgarian and a Honduran, employed by Shell's two subcontractors, Tidex and Ecodrill.

"We remain deeply concerned about the hostage situation that resulted from the abduction of four Shell contractors from SPDC's (Shell Petroleum Development Co., Shell's subsidiary in Nigeria) EA field operations," said the statement.

"We recognize the immense strains placed upon the hostages, their families and contractor companies under the present circumstances ... The health and safety of hostages remains our top priority," it said.

Nigeria is the biggest oil producer in Africa with a daily output of 2.5 million barrels, while Shell accounts for half of the country's oil production.

Source: Xinhua