IT is a lucrative flow station operated by the Anglo-Dutch oil and gas giant Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) on behalf of Total E&P, Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) and Belemaoil Oil Producing Limited. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is the joint venture partner.
Until the dying days of September, the Oil Mining Licence (OML)-25 flow station in Kula Kingdom of Akuku-Toru Local Government Area of Rivers State was shut for over two years. A group of women ensured no exploration was carried out. And with the dispute went down $1.7 billion.
The flow station is one of the largest producers of crude oil in the Niger Delta with capacity of 350, 000 barrels per day. Three communities, Offoin-Ama, Belema and Ngeje, jointly share hosting rights to the platform.
In 2017, the host communities and the indigenes became distraught with Shell. They decried the deplorable condition of the communities despite 40 years of oil drilling by Shell. They alleged gross negligent, marginalisation, lack of jobs, scholarships, basic and social amenities. Above all, they alleged non-implementation of Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), with the communities. Amid this, Shell announced plans to divest the facility to a local oil company of its choice.
The communities objected and urged the oil giant to give Belemaoil with 7.7 per cent stake in the facility the right of first refusal. Belemaoil founder Tein Jack-Rich is an indigene of the Kingdom. SPDC refused and insisted on doing it its own way.
The decision aggravated the situation and the communities began a “Shell must go. No Belemaoil no OML-25” campaign with women and children mounting blockade at the facility to ensure no activities took place. Appeals and threats could not break their resolve.
The protest, which started like the usual Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) picketing of erring companies and businesses premises, lasted for two years, one month, two weeks and three days, having started on August 11, 2017 and ended on September 28, 2019.
Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike was concerned about the huge loss of revenue by the governments (federal, state and local). He waded into the matter, set up a reconciliation committee chaired by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) Dr. Tammy Danagogo, a former Sports Minister and indigene of Akuku-Toru Local Government Area. After meetings with some stakeholders, a one-week ultimatum was issued to the women to vacate the facility, but that fell on deaf ears.
Last month, Minister of State for Petroleum Timipre Sylva and NNPC Group Managing Director (GMD) Mele Kayri intervened and resolved the matter to the satisfaction of all parties in the impasse.
On September 17, the parties (NNPC Shell and Belemoil) agreed and signed a pact which showed that Shell remains the major owner of the flow station. The pact put Belemaoil in charge of production, maintenance, employment and development of the host communities and the Kula areas. September 27 was set for the opening of the facility.
King Bouillon Oko
Before the facility was finally switched on September 28, the paramount ruler of Belema community, King Bouillon Oko, addressed the women and children, and told them that the struggle had come to a successful end.
“I want to inform you that the entire struggle has come to a successful end; your sacrifices did not go in vain, and I assure you that it is time for all of us to begin to enjoy the reward of many years of patience and struggle.
“It is now time for you to vacate this flow station so that it can be reopened, so that it can begin to generate money to meet the needs of the communities, so that you and our youths who have been roaming the streets can begin to work and earn money so they can take care of some responsibilities by themselves,” the monarch said.
The re-opening held amid fanfare and provided opportunity for stock-taking. The NNPC GMD, in an interview at the event, put the revenue loss at $1.7 billion, but expressed the hope of recovering lost grounds.
“There was a breakdown of law and order in the Kula community leading to the shutdown of Belema flow station for more than two years, leading to the lost of 35,000 barrels of oil per day and the peace of the community.
“In monetary terms, that was about $1.7 billion, which would have been used for the benefit of the communities and the federation,” Kyari said.
Jack-Rich corroborated the GMD and expressed the need to hit the ground running now so that the station would begin to yield income again.
He said: “The Federal Government needs to start making money, NNPC needs to start making money, Shell and Belemoil also need to start making money, because Belemaoil is also a partner in that asset. Shutting down the assets further now is of no benefit to neither Belemaoil, Shell, FG, NNPC or the communities because youths can’t get jobs and the communities cannot be developed.”
Need for peace
Peace is one of the major factors identified at the event as veritable in driving the developmental needs of the communities and their indigenes.
Speaker after speaker called on the people and youth to bury their hatchets and support the new development for the benefit of all.
Kyari, Sylva, Jack-Rich, Kula Supreme Council of Chiefs chairman, Dr. Koroma Eleki and old Rivers State first Military Administrator, who is also the Amanyanabo of Town Brass, King Alfred Diete Spiff, sued for peace.
Kyari said: “ We have engaged the communities and their leadership to ensure that the dispute between them and Shell is brought to a closure because our ultimate concern is the peace and unity of the communities so that there will be a conducive environment for growth, revenue generation and development of the communities and the people.”
Sylva said: “We need peace because if we don’t begin to make our communities peaceful, development will not come, investors won’t come here, but we must make our communities conducive for them to come; if investors do not come, there will be no jobs for our youths.
“It is now our responsibilities to bring peace in our communities so that investors can come and create the jobs.”
Jack-Rich urged that the past should be forgotten for development to come. “Now is the time to forget the past, now is the time to ensure that we live together as one united Kula. It is not a time for you to say A was bad, B was good, C is most excellent. No, let us move forward because the victory is not to Belemaoil but to Nigeria and you that have made this victory a possibility. Hate is dead in Kula Kingdom while love now lives,” he said.
King Eleki called on ”every member of our community to shun all forms of acrimony and rally the new operators of the facility for the growth and development of the Kingdom”.
Women, youths set agenda for Belemaoil
The women and youths of the communities expressed their confidence in Belemaoil’s ability to transform the area.
They want the proposed construction of access road across Kula/Bille sea to begin immediately to open the doors of investment and development to the oil rich area and end the dangers of several centuries of journeying to and fro the sea by boats.
They are equally expecting more employment opportunities, contracts and scholarship for the children among others.
“The youths of Kula are happy for what has happened. We have tried Shell for 40 years without making any progress. We were neglected, abandoned, impoverished and left without hope, but we tried Belemaoil for just three years and we have seen huge results, signs of transformation of both our human and environmental resources; that is why we are jubilating.
“Belemaoil has already done so much for the communities even without OML-25, so we believe that with the addition now, beyond the sky is our limit. The youths will be empowered more, given employment, among others and the women that are at the fore front of the fight will be empowered the more and carried along in the process and this will bring about the expected peace that will attract investors and their investments to our communities,” a youth leader, Temple Ibifubara, said.
The women who shut the station
Ogbomate Apamabo and Dukumo Agbelepele Dokubo, who were involved in the occupation of the flow station, expressed happiness that their labour was not in vain.
Mrs. Apamabo said: “For over two years we shut down our flow station OML-25 because of the way Shell which operated the oil well for over 40 years maltreated us and our communities.
“We vowed that Belemaoil should operate it because it has demonstrated commitment towards our development.
“Good things never come easy. We suffered a lot; mosquitos finished us at the platform, cold, some of us suffered pneumonia. Some of the children equally suffered different health challenges there. Some of the women also gave birth at the facility. We had our pots, plates, mats, everything. Our experience there is unexplainable but we are happy that at the end, God answered us.
“We really passed through so many things, but nobody died, and for that we are very grateful. We set up a church where we fasted and prayed to God every Wednesday and every Sunday, we conducted the church service weekly.” Dokubo said the women were never discouraged. “We did not allow anything to discourage us during the two years we occupied the flow station, not even the threats by the local government moved us. We were ready for anything that came our way, and as God would have it none of us died in the process, instead women were giving birth there,” she said.
Gospel according to Jack-Rich
Addressing the women at the facility before they accepted to pull out for the reopening event to take place, Jack-Rich assured them of the commitment of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, the Minister of Petroleum, NNPC GMD, Shell Managing Director and the Country Chair to develop their communities.
“Be rest assured that your cry for the development of your communities have been recognised by Mr. President, the Minister of Petroleum, the GMD of NNPC and the MD of Shell and the Country Chair.
“Shell came here with the most powerful personnel; the Deputy MD was here with the MD, and the Technical personnel, the Executive Director of local content was also here among others.
“The entire community is happy, the youths are happy because they are going to have jobs. The GMD of NNPC has already asked the communities to hold him and me responsible if their place is not developed, and the youths still not have jobs. Those are very important and serious statements which no one can tool with,” he said.
King Alfred Diate-Spiff
In an interview, the chairman of the event, Diate-Spiff, lauded the Federal Government for demonstrating right political will to resolve the issues to the satisfaction of all parties.
He said: “The nation needs the oil now and it is good that positive decisions have been taken and demonstrated in Kula oil problems. This goes to show that the government feels the pulse of the people and we are grateful for that.
“However, the government does not need to wait for members of oil bearing communities of the Niger Delta or any other part of the country who are suffering neglect from oil operators in their domain to get angry, go red-hot, wide-hot and nuclear before they can step in to resolve the burning issues, having settled this, I will also like them to step in an resolve similar situations in other parts of the region.”
‘Resolve other Niger Delta disputes’
Also, Leader of Niger Delta Volunteer Force (NDVF), Asari Dokubo a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), applauded the Federal Government for resolving the issues between Kula Kingdom and Shell and requested that the same measures be taken in other oil-bearing communities in the Niger Delta.
“This is a watershed in the history of Niger Delta and will re-echo and vibrate in the Niger Delta even after we had gone.
“Shell says we are bad people, we are pirates, we are saboteurs, we stopped oil production in their facility among other allegations and for that reason they are going to sell off their interest in the flow station, then we said to them, since you have voluntarily decided to divest, give us the right of first refusal, they refused and went and organised their cronies to come and buy what God has given us; we refused.
“Former President Goodluck Jonathan in resolving the issues during his administration urged Shell and Belemaoil to jointly manage the facility, but Shell refused, but after many years of stoppage of oil production, we have come back to the same place we were before.”
0 comments:
Post a Comment