By Sam Akanimo
The Anglo-Dutch oil and gas major, Shell, is in trouble again in the Niger Delta area. Some communities in the Bayelsa State axis of the oil region are at loggerheads with the oil comoany
In the home state of former President Goodluck Jonathan, seven communities occupying Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) Estuary Area (EA) are kicking against Shell.
They are demanding a separate Host Community Development Trust, saying this demand is not negotiable.
Accordingly, they have resolved to maintain a peaceful occupation of the EA field around the Sea Eagle Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel while awaiting favourable resolution at the negotiating table.
Chairman of Bisangbene, and representative of the seven host communities, Timothy Geregere, is claiming that the meeting between them and Shell officials last May 30, ended without resolving the dispute.
He is claiming that the oil major told them to write to the Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) to request that they want a separate HCDT.
“What transpired at the meeting is unacceptable and an indication that SPDC is taking our peaceful disposition for granted and having exhaustively towed the path of dialogue the only option left is shut down the entire field.
“We cannot understand the position that Shell is saying that the EA Host Community Development Trust is subject of inter communal litigation, why then did they go ahead to incorporate the EA HCDT clustering us with five alien communities ?
“We have made it abundantly clear in many letters from when the idea was mooted. We want all to know that SPDC should take responsibility for any breach of the existing peace at the EA fields haven pushed us to the wall.
“Their double speak on this matter is unacceptable, it is not in our place to write to NUPRC, it is in their place to give NUPRC who is the regulator and give them the constitution of the HCDT. We reject the EA HCDT as currently constituted, it is unacceptable”, says Geregere.
The community leader said a separate HCDT is not negotiable, adding that there several examples where other oil firms like Chevron and ExxonMobil had to constitute multiple HCDTs in same field to respect the cultural lineage of host communities
Before now, communities in Ekeremor Local Government Area of Bayelsa took the protest to the EA oilfields, off the Atlantic coastline, on May 20.
The protesters arrived at the EA oilfields on speedboats chanting solidarity songs in the Ijaw dialect.
The Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021, he says, mandates oil firms to set aside three per cent of their operational expenses for community development to be managed by HCDT.
He explained that the separation became necessary because the twelve communities in the EA, including five other communities, could not work together.
He said that the seven communities that have resolved to work together are, Bisangbene, Amatu I, Amatu II, Letugbene, Orobiri, Ogbintu and Azamabiri.
They insisted on having a separate trust from the five other communities, which are Bilabiri 1, Bilabiri 2, Ikeni, Izetu, and Agge.
Shell’s spokesperson, Michael Adande, says the matter is already in court, adding, “the EA Host Communities Development Trust is a subject of intra-communal litigation, the outcome of which is being awaited before any further steps by the SPDC.”
Shell, however, declined comments on the outcome of the May 30 meeting that took place in Yenagoa, the state capital.
