•Shell gets marching orders
A lull in political hostilities in the Niger Delta, after the general election and the failure of President Goodluck Jonathan to get re-elected, has shifted attention to oil multinationals, putting them back in the eye of the storm.
There is a resurgence of agitation over traditional conflict areas such as the relocation of the headquarters of oil multinationals to primary oil communities, damage caused by oil spill, local content implementation, provision of life enhancing infrastructure such as light, water, good roads, among others.
Back to basics
These subjects had been subsumed by the boisterous campaign during the election which created some calm. But they are right back in the fore as political awareness has heightened in the country and political power has become the basis for economic and social power.
An oil activist, Jonas Oyibo, told TheNiche that politics is many things to the youth – a source of employment, income, quick material wealth, social relevance, and community recognition.
”With fighting on the political front ebbing, particularly in the Niger Delta whose main political leap to the control and allocation of national wealth, Jonathan, is out of the power orbit, the attention of communities has shifted back to the oil sector to renew skirmishes,” he said.
Agitation for Shell, Chevron, Total, Elf, Addax, Mobil, and Agip to locate their headquarters in their areas of major finds and operations – especially Port Harcourt, Warri, Calabar, and Ugo rather than Lagos – had raged for over a decade before it was briefly jettisoned.
Agitators say relocation is to enable oil companies better appreciate the situation of host communities and how best to deal with them for peaceful engagement.
They also argue that the current location of the headquarters of oil companies, apart from denying oil bearing states of substantial tax revenue, creates insensitivity in the psyche of oil companies’ managers, and allows political intrusion and manipulation in the relationship between oil multinationals and their primary hosts.
Delta rekindles relocation cry
Delta State government announced penultimate week that it is putting measures in place to ensure that all oil companies in Delta relocate their corporate head offices to their areas of operation in the state.
Governor Ifeanyi Okowa’s Assistant on Youths and Community Development, Eric Omare, who spoke to youths at a town hall meeting in Bomadi, renewed the call for the relocation.
He said this is the policy of the state government and is meant to foster a bond between oil companies and their host communities.
Protest in Bayelsa
Last week, the people of Koroama in Bayelsa State shut down Shell’s integrated gas plant in Gbarain-Ubie.
Part of their demands is for electricity from the plant as they have suffered long without power supply.
Koroama’s traditional ruler, Sabu Martins, urged the people to remain resolute but peaceful until their demands are met.
They are also against the adverse effects of gas flare and other disruptions caused by oil exploration and exploitation without essential social facilities in the community.
Martins said: ”We are protesting to Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) and to the federal government.
“Koroama is an oil community and has the largest proven gas and oil reserve in the entire shell operations in the area.
“We have agreed that we could die here if light, the only demand we have, is not given to us; and if that happens then Shell will never operate here.”
Ankio Briggs, a community rights activist, said the demand is modest and runs along the line of historical demands in the Niger Delta. She urged Bayelsa, Abuja, and Shell to address the problem.
But Shell spokesman, Joseph Obari, explained that the firm has difficulties meeting the demand for electricity from its gas plant because of limited capacity.
The Bayelsa State government itself is warning up for a showdown with Agip and has called for investigation into its pipeline explosion that claimed 13 lives, including an employee of the Ministry of Environment and a security personnel.
Governor Seriake Dickson held a meeting with the officials of Agip in Yenagoa to express displeasure over reports of violation of environmental standards by the company.
He criticised the managing director of Agip for being absent at the meeting, and said he would from now deal only with chief executive officers in discussing issues during which binding decisions are to be taken.
“In this government,” Dickson stressed, “we are concerned about the environment. The statistics that have been read out are alarming, to say the least. I can’t imagine that in this state, how from your facilities alone, 656 spills occurred in one year.
“That means, almost three spills at three different sites occur every day of the year. That is very troubling, even though I know that the activities of some of our people also contribute to it.
“In view of the litany of complaints against most of the oil companies here, and in particular about Agip from all stakeholders – security, communal, and government – the government of Bayelsa State is interested in a full forensic investigation.
“I don’t want to prejudge the final report that will come.
“But if the investigation concludes that your company has not or is not doing enough in terms of observing environmentally accepted standards, the government of Bayelsa State will not hesitate in taking all legal measures to ensure that you are brought to account, including moving for a revocation of your licence to operate here.”
Threat from PENGASSAN, NUPENG
Members of Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) have threatened strike over alleged injustice to the workers of Arco Petroleum.
NUPENG Zonal Chairman, Godwin Eruba, and PENGASSAN Port Harcourt Zone Chairman, Azubike M. Azubuike, both threatened industrial action if Agip does not rescind the quit order it gave to Arco and follow due process.
They recounted in Port Harcourt that trouble started when Agip ordered Arco to vacate its (Agip’s) plants at OB/OB Ebocha in Rivers State and Kwale in Delta State immediately for Plantgeria Nigeria to take over.
They argued that Arco is an indigenous company that has been doing “very well” in the oil and gas industry for many years, and in this era of encouraging local content it would be a great disservice to take its hands off a job it has handled for years.
”By this quit order, the position of 160 members of our unions at Arco would be jeopardised as they would not be paid their entitlements of over nine years,” they said.
The union leaders expressed concern that Agip gave the quit order when there is a subsisting Federal High Court injunction asking both parties to maintain the status quo until October 26 when the case comes up for hearing.
They called on Arco “to immediately put all machinery in motion to pay our members their accrued nine years’ terminal entitlement” because the workers will not quit the plants “until their full entitlements are paid.”
The unions also urged the federal and Rivers State governments, NASS, Rivers State House of Assembly and other agencies to call Agip to order to avoid the fate that befell Ashland which made it to go under.
For observers of the oil industry, friction has returned to the relationship between oil companies and their host communities as poverty and hunger exacerbate tension.
