By Nneka Nwogwugwu
Two environmental organisations, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) and We the People has discussed on the Petroleum Industry Act and the divestment moves of oil companies in Niger Delta.
They recently invited Niger Delta communities and civil society activists to a one-day conversation on the recently approved Nigerian Petroleum Industry Act.
The event which held at the Ken Saro Wiwa foundation innovation Hub in Port Harcourt provided an open space to discuss recent happenings around divestments, where the biggest oil companies in the Niger Delta are selling off their assets and going farther offshore.
This was contained in a statement signed by Kome Odhomor, Media and Communication Lead of HOMEF.
Nnimmo Bassey, Director of HOMEF, in his address stated that from the start, the business of oil extraction operated as a mix of corporate greed and state backed repression.
He decried that the consent of the people have never been sought or received when most of these companies set up a project.
According to Bassey, these relations of production have remained largely the same from pre-colonial to colonial and present neo-colonial times.
“Even in decisions regarding investments, development, or even infrastructural projects, there is wilful neglect and refusal to consult or engage the people in decision making processes.
“Projects are often thrown at communities even when they are not the priority needs of the people.
“All efforts to placate and assuage the massive harms inflicted on the Niger Delta has been carried out through various means including oil company driven Memoranda of Understanding with communities, and various government interventions through agencies such as Niger Delta Development Board (NDDB) established in 1961, the Niger Delta Basin and Rural Development Authority (NDBRDA) established in 1976, the Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADEC) established in 1992, and among others.
“With over 1,481 wells, 275 flow stations, over 7,000 kilometres length of oil/gas pipelines and over 120 gas flare furnaces, the Niger Delta is an ecological bomb and one of the most polluted places in the world,” he noted.
Nnimmo Bassey called on the people of the region to rise and demand ecological justice.
In his presentation, Ken Henshaw of We the People reflected on Nigeria’s Petroleum Industry Act and the new frenzied divestment moves by oil companies said while the PIA establishes a Host Communities development framework to transfer benefits to communities, it doesn’t however allow communities any decent participation in managing the fund, or even determining who runs the trust.
Presenting key issues in the PIA, Henshaw noted that the law gave provision for withdrawal of host community entitlement “Where in any year, an act of vandalism, sabotage or other civil unrest occurs that causes damage to petroleum and designated facilities or disrupts production activities within the host community.
This provision stems directly from the erroneous view which has been peddled by oil companies that communities are responsible for sabotage on pipelines and oil theft.
However, these view has been debunked by the NNPC and even the United Nations Environment Programme. Both blame equipment failure for majority of spills.
On gas flaring, while the PIA makes it illegal, it nonetheless creates a series of exemptions which ensures that the same gas flare regime continues literarily unchecked, and empowers the government to give licenses to oil companies to flare. The PIA also does not state a definite date for ending gas flaring.
Among other things which were discussed in the meeting, Henshaw concluded that “ the entire PIA expresses no intention for moving Nigerian away from dependence on fossils.”
The meeting also expressed concern over the emerging shifts from oil and the fate of oil producing communities.
Speaking on divestment , Henshaw informed that after over 70 years of oil extraction and the devastating impacts it has had on oil producing communities, there are indications that the most complicit oil companies are leaving.
“And new pressures are emerging from their divestment. The biggest multinational player in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector, and also the most culpable in several years of oil pollution and rights abuses, Shell plans to divest its entire Nigeria joint venture portfolio and make a ‘clean break from Niger Delta assets’.
“In 2022, Nigerian independent oil and gas company, Seplat Energy Plc informed the public through a statement that it had acquired ExxonMobil’s Nigerian shallow water business.
“As companies divest, local players take over oil assets and immediately deny responsibility for historical damages. As companies divest, the Nigerian government keeps failing to establishing frameworks or policies for addressing community concerns.”
He urged that for the ecologically devastated communities of the Niger Delta, no hurried divestment by transnational oil companies will be tolerated without restoration of their environment and livelihoods.
A just transition must also provide justice for the countless victims of oil company inspired and state sanctioned abuses, and reparations to the people of the Niger Delta for decades of expropriation. Anything short of these is injustice.