Marginal Fields: Local Content Act is a law, not Yahoo Format- NDAI tackles Buhari

Niger Delta Advocacy Initiative, NDAI, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to direct the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR to give ‘Right of First Refusal’ to people from the Itsekiri, Ijaw and Isoko ethnic extractions in the recently advertised 57 Marginal Fields Offer, saying, “the Local Content Act is a law and not a mere YAHOO FORMAT”

President of NDAI, Comrade Esimaje Awani, who made the call Tuesday July 14 in Warri, Delta State, during a press briefing by the group, explained: “The commencement of the 2020 oil bid-round, is coming 18 years after the last one was conducted in 2002, though the implementing agency, DPR announced that the bid-round exercise is open to indigenous companies and investors interested in participating in exploration and production business in Nigeria, but companies from the Niger Delta region, most especially from the Itsekiri, Ijaw and Isoko ethnic extractions should be given a” RIGHT OF FIRST REFUSAL’ according to the Local Content Act, because the Local Content Act is a” law” and not a mere YAHOO FORMAT

“According to the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), over 600 companies have applied to be prequalified for the ongoing rounds of 57 Marginal Oilfields in the country. We can authoritatively tell you that not even a hand-full of companies from the Niger Delta region have applied because they have already lost confidence in the process due to constant marginalization of the region coupled with the outrageous application fees attached to this process.

“It is eminent to state that without the passing of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), we understand that the 1969 petroleum Act as amended in 2014 that the government is depending upon, gives the Minister of Petroleum what has been described as broad and subjective authority to award OMLs and OPLs and as it stands today, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is also doubling as the Honorable Minister of Petroleum Resources, though we have one of our own in the person of Timipre Sylva as the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, who does not enjoy such powers.”

NDAI which accused the President Muhammadu Buhari of deliberately neglecting the Multi-Billion Dollar Gas Revolution Industrial Park Project, GRIP and the Deep-Sea Port in Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State, stated: “We are counting on the leadership of the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR to do the needful by advising the President adequately with regards to the subject matter as they have done in the time past in resolving sensitive issues concerning indigenous  Oil and Gas Companies from the region.

“Though we understand the term ‘marginality of a field’ that it is subjective, but whether it is untapped, abandoned or partially depleted reserves, the most important factor is always the degree of profitable production. Between year 2000 and 2010, 30 marginal fields were farmed out to oil Companies without due consideration to the Niger Delta Region. As at 2016, only 10 of the fields have been put into production.

“By 2014, 9 Marginal Fields operators were contributing about 2.46% of the Nigeria total oil production, more than 66% of the Marginal Fields have not started production more than 10 years after the fields were acquired.

“As Niger Deltans who suffer the negative health and environmental impact of oil exploration, we should be ranked amongst the highest owners of the OMLs not even marginal fields. But to think of not duly considering indigenous companies owned by Niger Deltans most especially those from the Itsekiri, Ijaw and Isoko extractions in the allocation of the 57 marginal oil field is purely an aberration and demands urgent and Godly redress.

“It will interest you to note that the just concluded ground breaking of the 614km long Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) natural gas pipeline meant to convey gas to the Northern part of the country, morocco, the United Kingdom, etc. A 40inches diameter pipeline expected to transport 3,500million metric standard cubic feet (MMSCF/D) per day of dehydrated wet gas, which is the same amount of wet gas projected for the GRIP, in Warri South-West Local Government Area but stalled for former.

“This is what we refer to as sheer insensitivity by a Government that displays sick attitude towards developing other regions, especially the ones that lay the golden egg like the Niger delta.

“It beats our imagination as to how a government that claim to practice and encourage local production suddenly deviate from its agenda rather than encourage local industrialization through projects such as the GRIP, as a substitute opted to sustain the continued exportation of our natural gas without any value added. On this, while we are in partial support of the AKK Project, we say the GRIP/EPZ must be continued or we will also be constrained to disrupt any attempt to continue with the AKK Project.

“It is also of importance to inform you that in 2017/2018, some Niger Delta ex-agitators were deployed under the Presidential Amnesty scholarship scheme to various private  universities across the country in a bid to remove them from the creeks, give them a new life and ensure they become productive to the society, but the Amnesty Office has since refused to pay the deployed students their statutory stipends of seventy thousand naira each as monthly upkeep and forty thousand naira per session for book allowance.

“The unjustified reason for continuous denial of the students their stipends even after several petitions, protest and complaints are what we can’t even explain. These students didn’t send themselves to the various universities, they were duly deployed by the amnesty office and offered admission by the different universities ,having found them not only to be indigenes of the Niger Delta region, but eminently worthy and qualified under the amnesty programme.

“We are therefore calling and appealing to the Interim Management Committee manning the Presidential Amnesty Office to immediately look at this issue holistically and ensure the payment of the stipends/allowance as it was adequately provided for in the 2019 budget. It can be referred to as sheer wickedness to squeeze out millions of naira to pay the school fees of the beneficiaries and bluntly refused to pay the statutory stipends and allowances that will continually encourage these students to remain in school.”

The group equally asked the Federal Government to instruct the Nigerian Port Authority via the Ministry of Transportation to dredge the Escravos Bar-Mouth, in order to enhance the optimum usage of the Warri, Koko, Burutu and Sapele Ports in Delta State, adding that the next substantive Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs and the Coordinator, the Presidential Amnesty Programme should be appointed from any of the three Warri Local Government Areas of Delta State for Equity and fairness.

Members of NDAI, protesting perceived marginalization

They called for a stakeholders’ meeting in which, “the concerned authorities will amicably dialogue with the leaders of the groups and relevant stakeholders to listen to all complaints and possibly chart a course to address same so as to bring down the brooding fire which appears to be growing consequently by the day. We also suggest a meeting be conveyed to include;

·         The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs

·         The Minister of States for Petroleum

·         NNPC Group Managing Director

·         DG NOSDRA

·         DG NIMASA

·         MD Nigerian Port Authority

·         Director/CEO, Department of Petroleum Resources

·         International Oil and Gas Companies(IOCs)

·         Affected Community Leaders /Stakeholders.”

A Cross Section of members of Niger Delta Advocacy Initiative, NDAI, during the press briefing

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