From Douglas Blessing, Port Harcourt
A non governmental organisation, Nigeria and Entrepreneurship: Summit and Honors (NESH) Foundation, said it has concluded plans to host Presidential candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP) on oil and gas roundtable.
Founder of NESH, Emeka Ugwu-Oju, disclosed this while speaking with The AUTHORITY at the organisation 5th edition of oil and gas roundtable held in Port Harcourt, Rivers State
Speaking at the roundtable with stakeholders from the oil and gas industry, Ugwu-Oju explained that the meeting aimed at getting stakeholders together to re-strategies and ensure that even though the IOCs are no longer onshore, that the independent are in a position to cope with the protection of the extractive environment.
He said: “The initial focus of the roundtable was on the new operators onshore, the Nigerian Independent Oil and Gas companies, and the environment. But most of the Nigerian Independents and by extension, the Nigerian economy, are suffering terribly from the current large scale crude oil theft which if not curtailed soon, will deal a very fatal blow to the Nigerian economy.
Ugwu-Oju noted that the challenge of pipelines vandalism and crude oil theft is impacting very negatively on the Nigeria independent, “is affecting our economy because as statistics shows, just last year alone we lost about $3. 5billion from crude oil theft.”
He revealed that “NESH is planning to host a special oil and gas roundtable that will involve the presidential candidates of APC, PDP and Labour Party, where they (candidates) will be able to say what they will do with regards to reducing the crude oil theft if they are elected as the president of Nigeria.
However, in his presentation, the Interim Administrator of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Mr Efiong Akwa, observed that lack of will by the governments and leadership effects have been responsible for the increasing challenge in the oil and gas industry.
He noted that the Niger Delta region is considered one of highest oil impacted region in the world due to poor regulated oil activities, saying that gas flaring, industrial pollution, oil spillage cause of environmental degradation in the area.
Represented by Onuoha Obeka, Director, Environmental Protection and Control of NDDC, Akwa stressed that “Some of the factors that are responsible for what is going on at the moment at the oil and gas sector are poor government structure, weak legal system, environmental degradation and others”.
He disclosed that the NDDC advocate for more proactive governance system in the provision of infrastructure, effective environmental management to bring to an end the crude pipeline vandalism.
In his remarks, a representative of traditional rulers in oil and gas producing area and chairman of the meeting, King Alfred Diete Spiff regretted that things are going wrong in the oil industry, which he attributed to the environmental damages experienced in the area.
He said “We need to have conferences like this on the sustainable way of reducing the oil theft that is still going on. In addition, the pollution from the artisanal refining has caused alot of damages that has affected the entire Niger Delta environment”.
During his book presentation titled “Oloibiri to Bonny”, a former Managing Director of the Nigeria Liquified Natural Gas (NLNG), Dr Godswill Ihetu, expressed that the Niger Delta is suffering from alot of environmental activities. “Is it the mangrove that are dying, fishes are dying, now in Port Harcourt were we are is the issue of soot, which is as a result people stealing crude oil, boiling it and then polluting the atmosphere putting the residence at health risk
He said that the government does not have the ability to sustain its own facility like the refineries, “we are importing products while we have four refineries. This problem is as a result of government interference”.
Ihetu therefore, call for privatization of some of the government establishment to boost production and jobs creation across the country.
