Oil companies that fail to meet the 2008 deadline on ending routine gas flaring would have their producing fields shut. Chairman, Senate Committee on Gas, Senator Rufus Inatimi Spiff, gave the warning at a gas seminar in Lagos yesterday, saying that there was no going back on the deadline...The warning...might place Nigeria's biggest producer, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) on collision course with the authorities following declaration by the former that it would end flaring in 2009, a year behind the deadline...However, Senator Spiff expressed hope that most major operators in the petroleum industry including Chevron Nigeria Limited, Elf Petroleum Nigeria Limited [part of Total], Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited [part of ExxonMobil] and Nigeria Agip Oil Company [joint venture Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, ENI, ConocoPhillips] would beat the deadline.