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Nigerian Oil and Gas Mining Report
N’Delta: Soldiers Killed 90 Persons – Maritime Workers
The Bayelsa State branch of the Maritime Workers Union (MWU) said in January that rampaging soldiers of the Joint (Military) Task Force (JTF) on the Niger Delta killed over 90 persons and destroyed over 300 boats along the creeks and rivers of Bayelsa State in 2008 and called for the payment of compensation to affected families.
At a Public Hearing in Yenagoa, the Chairman of the state chapter of the Maritime Workers’ Union , Comrade Sylvanus Egele told the presidential task force led by Real Admiral, Dele Ezeoba that many of the union members were killed by soldiers at the height of militancy in the state last year. He called on the Federal Government to prevail on the commanding officers of the Joint Military Task to release a report of investigations done on the alleged killing and ensure the immediate prosecution of those involved to deter other trigger happy soldiers from engaging in such dastardly acts. He further accused the soldiers as engaging in extortion and torture.
The union leader blamed the state government’s poor handling of security issues and the improper implementation of the report on the reforms of the Bayelsa Volunteers, the state’s security outfit, as responsible for some of the problems in the waterways.
In a submission, the Head of Marine Police of the Nigerian Police Force in the state, D.S.P Ngoye Jack-Reece, the representative of the Nigerian Inland Waterways Authority, Captain Samma White and the Chairman of the Opalaye Farmers’ Association in Nembe-Bassanbiri, Mr.Dogiye Allisson-Isele, called on the presidential task force to improve the manpower of police and to prevail on the oil companies to check the incidence of oil spillage and give out loans to fish farmers in the state.
The Chairman of the Task Force, Real Admiral Ezeoba, told the audience that the task force was set up by the Chief of Defence Staff to check illegalities along the waterways.
FG Considers Construction of Coastal Road
There are indications that the much talked about coastal road linking Lagos to Calabar is being taken seriously by the federal government.
This emerged during a recent stakeholder's interactive session between Minister of the Niger Delta Ministry, Chief Ufot Ekaette, Minister of State in the ministry, Chief Godswill Orubebe and representatives of oil producing areas of the state at Akure.
Ekaette, while responding to comments by former Ondo State representative on the board of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Chief Olusola Oke, said the new ministry would work on the issue of the coastal road in view of its importance to the region's socio-economic development.
Oke, who is the National Legal Officer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had said in his comment at the forum which was attended by various interest groups, including traditional rulers, youths and women organisations, that the project was important to the entire region. According to him, the road would open the entire region and boost socio-economic potentials of the area and the entire country.
He said now that Akwa Ibom and Delta states were given the two ministers in the ministry, Ondo State should be considered for the Chairmanship of NDDC. Oke said absence of kidnapping and hostage-taken in the state should not be interpreted to mean a sign of weakness or cowardice, but a factor that should attract good things to the state.
In his reaction, Ekaete said the meeting, the seventh in the series, was deliberately called to enable him have first hand information about different situations in the region. He said the ministry, which would make use of contributions of the people, is ready to work with them and urged them to document some of their submissions properly, to serve as guide, adding that the ministry would evolve strategies to ensure that oil companies are more responsive to issues affecting their host communities.
FG Revokes 2 Oil Blocks
The Federal Government has cancelled an oil exploration deal it signed with a Korean Consortium, according to separate statements issued yesterday by the companies that formed the group.
The Korean consortium is now exploring legal option against the Federal Government over the cancellation of its exploration rights at two major offshore oilfields awarded to the consortium in 2005. Korean National Oil Company (KNOC), a member of the consortium, said the Federal Government alleged that the consortium failed to make agreed payments.
But the group, led by KNOC, said they had paid $9 million in cash and offered a letter of credit to pay an additional $231 million to cover their 60 per cent interest in Oil Prospecting Licence (OPL) 321 and OPL 323. The blocks could hold as much as 1 billion barrels, according to preliminary estimates.
“ Nigeria informed our consortium that it will cancel the rights because the consortium failed to fully pay the investment that the group had agreed to honour in 2005 when the rights were awarded. We have met our obligations through official negotiations with the Nigerian government and can't understand the decision because the payment issue, which has never been raised in the previous government, suddenly became a matter under the current government. We are seeking various counter-measures including legal steps and diplomatic solutions to restore the rights or get refunded”, consortium members Daewoo Shipbuilding and Korea Electric Power Corporation said in a statement.
The cancellation of the rights is a gain for India’s top energy explorer, Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), as the Federal Government restored its right as the winning bidder for the two highly prospective deep-water oil exploration rights in the Gulf of Guinea. ONGC lost out to the Korean consortium in 2005 as South Korea promised the Federal Government massive investment in infrastructure.
South Korea had promised to build a 1,200-km (745-mile) gas pipeline from Port Harcourt to Abuja as well as a 2,250 megawatts of power generation in return for the exploration rights. The two oil fields oil are also 30 per cent owned by British-listed firm Equator Exploration and 10 per cent by a local Nigerian firm.
Shell’s Oil Output Falls by 64 Percent
A spokesman for Shell Petroleum Development Company has said the oil major averaged output of only 360,000 b/d in 2008, down from 409,000 b/d a year earlier. This he attributed to increased militancy and disruptions to its operations in the Niger Delta region. Until 2006, the company was leading other oil majors in production with about 1 million barrels of crude oil a day from its operations in the Niger Delta.
Media reports say that Shell’s Bonny Light and Sea Eagle and Forcados crude fields have capacity for producing 800,000 b/d between them at full capacity, and in combination with its joint venture partners could easily deliver 1 million b/d, some 43% of Nigeria’s total output. A slight saving grace for the company is the upswing of offshore deepwater operations especially ones like Bonga which deliver 225,000 b/d.
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