Multinational oil giant, Shell Petroleum Development Company Limited (SPDC), has declared that despite pressure from some quarters, it has no intention to resume oil and gas exploration activities in Ogoni land of Rivers State.
This is as the company said Nigeria has lost N700Billion in revenue as a result of the forcefully occupation of its flow station in Belema community in Akuku-Toru local government area of the state.
SPDC General Manager, External Relations, Igo Weli, who spoke in Port Harcourt, at the media launch of the 2019 Nigeria Briefing Notes, also declared that it has no intention of sending any crony to resume exploration activities in Ogoniland.
Weli stated that operation of the Ogoni oil field had been taken over by the Nigeria Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) since 2012.
He said: “Shell is not returning to Ogono and there are no plans toward that. Infact, the oil in the entire Ogoni will not be enough to restore the image of Shell, which was damaged worldwide by concorted stories from Ogoni.
“We are not returning to Ogoni and we are not planning to use surrogates to re-enter into Ogoniland. We have not operated in Ogoniland since 1993 and we are not planning to do that.
“The Federal Government handed over the operations of Ogoni oil field to NPDC (Nigeria Petroleum Development Company) since 2012.”
The External Affairs Manager, said efforts were on to resolve the matter so that full activities will resume at the Belema Flow Station, pointing out that the face-off over the flow station may affect the industry.
Well said: “Nigeria has lost almost N700Billion due to the forced occupation of the Belema Flow Station by locals. The issue sends very bad signals to investors coming to the Niger Delta. We all need to be concerned.
“The licence was renewed by the Federal Government in December 2018 and we have paid for 20years. Very soon, the issue will be resolved.”
Earlier in her remarks, SPDC General Manager, Safety and Environment, Nene Anochie, said over 90% of the spillages and leakages on the company’s facilities are caused by third party interference.
Anochie stated that on several occasions, Shell teams has been denied access to oil spill sites by community folks.
