Seen from the porthole of a Super Puma helicopter skimming over the Atlantic, the future of African oil exploration appears for a second like a giant, fire-breathing dragon. Towering 12 storeys above the waters off Nigeria, Royal Dutch Shell's mammoth Bonga facility puffs a constant plume of flame as it sucks oil from below the ocean floor. Shell sees Bonga's start-up in November 2005 as heralding a new era of deepwater operations in Nigeria, where a series of recent reports have revealed the depths of its difficulties onshore in the swamps of the Niger Delta.