THE POLITICS OF NIGERIA’S OIL MINERAL LEASE-11 AND OGONIS’ DEBACLE

By Ibrahim Bakare

The incongruous statement and claims made by Rivers state governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike over the purchase of 45 percent equity share belonging to Shell Petroleum Development Company Nigeria Ltd has been made to create more investment panicky measures as regards to where the governor generated his figures and facts to back it up. Being the largest Oil fields in Niger Delta of Nigeria Oil Mining Lease –OML 11 comprises of a chunk of interstate areas covering 33 Oil and Gas Fields in Ogoni, Eleme, Owaza in Abia state, Bonny Island with Export Terminal, Etche oil Fields, Part of Port Harcourt, Oyibo Local Government Area, Opobo and Ngo Community in Andoni Rivers state plus Eastern Obolo in Akwa Ibom state.

The management of OML-11 has the Joint Ventures partners being operated by the Spell Petroleum Development Company-SPDC Joint Venture, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation-NNPC, Total Exploration and Production Nigeria Ltd, Nigerian Agip Oil Company-NAOC. Hence NNPC has 55 %, SPDC has 30 %, and Total E & P has 10 % while NAOC has 5 %. But going by the pronouncement made by Rivers state Governor Wike alluding that SPDC due to its legal infractions with one of the host communities being Ejama Ebubu in Eleme local Government Council  that got Court Judgment debt of One Hundred and Ninety-four Billion naira-N194Billion as he said “I am delighted to inform you that the Rivers State Government has fully acquired Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) 45% interest in Oil Mining Lease (OML) 11 situated in Ejama Ebubu community in Eleme Local Government Area and the adjoining Ogoni and other communities of Rivers State”. Apart from the immovable chattels which must be outside the 30 % equity joint Venture belonging to SPDC the remaining 15 %  must have perhaps being legally covered in the Judgment debt already domiciled in the United Kingdom and Nigeria where Shell Petroleum  Development Company operates.

But the Rivers state governor is serious in his declarations thus “That the present Government of Rivers State entrusted in my care through the Will of God and those of the peoples of the Rivers State have concluded that it will be in the overall interest of the State, the other Federating States and the Federal Government that we as a Government, should make a bid for the purchase of the said interest of SPDC now placed on auction by extant Order of the Courts of Law. Therefore, I directed the Rivers State Ministry of Finance Incorporated to make a bid of USD 150,000,0900.00 supported by a Bank Guarantee and cash payment to the Deputy Sheriff in the sum of N1 billion, the later payable to the Judgement Creditors while the former is escrowed.

“I have further directed the relevant Government agencies to take immediate steps to liaise with any financially capable companies to partner with the Rivers State Government to ensure that the said oil field come on stream within 15 months from today.”

It has not come to be realized whether the four Local Government Areas of Ogoni people were truly consulted before the governor’s public broadcast on September 30th, 2019 as counter pronouncements by various groups in Ogoniland including the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People-MOSOP and Conscience Of Ogoni People-COOP have come out to condemn the governor’s statement.

For the struggle by Ogoni people against the environmental degradation of bio-diversity and ecological well-being leading to the killing of World acclaimed Playwright and administrator Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa and 4-prominent Ogoni sons including a Commissioner and Secretary-To-Rivers State Government-SSG. And since 1993 Shell Petroleum Development Company-SPDC were forced to pull out of Ogoni land and the OML-11 facilities in Ogoniland abandoned therein.

For other critics, allegations of the Governor’s cronies coming to purchase the so-called 45 percent acquired by Rivers state Government if the deals go through has remained as an albatross to the purported good intentions of the governor with some insiders in SPDC and others allegedly fronting for politicians in public office.

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For the other interested partners in OML 11 coming from Abia State and Akwa Ibom how they will agree for the acquisition to be smooth is another ball game altogether.  As communities involved in the SPDc operations along that line of OML 11 are agitating against the Rivers state governor’s acquisition pronouncement.