Royal Dutch Shell suspended crude oil export from the Forcados terminal in southern Nigeria following a militant attack, a company spokesman said on Saturday.

Earlier, Shell said in a statement that the company's Forcados oil loading platform, some 20 km offshore, caught fire early Saturday morning. Meanwhile, a pipeline supplying oil to the Forcados terminal was exploded, it said.

"We have suspended the loading of vessels (at the platform). It (platform) has the capacity to store 4 million barrels of crude oil," the spokesman told Xinhua by telephone.

Source: Xinhua