OML-25 Host Communities  Decries 67yrs of Neglect, Deprivation

Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt 

Host Communities of Oil Mining Lease (OML) 25 in Kula Kingdom, Akuku-Toru Local Government Area of Rivers State have decried untold hardship, neglect, deprivation, enslavement and human backwardness for 67 years of the operation of Shell in the area. 

This was as the communities demanded a binding agreement with the new operator of the oil facility before oil production can resume in the area. 

OML-25, a major oil block in the Niger Delta which accounts for over 45,000 barrels of crude oil and 103,000 cubic feet of gas per day, has been temporarily shut down for over 15 years due to a longstanding dispute between the former operator, SPDC, and its host communities. 

Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) had divested the oil asset to Renaissance Africa Energy Holdings in the wake of a protracted dispute with the host communities over issues of neglect, impoverishment and enslavement of the host communities since it began operation in the area about 67 years ago. 

The host communities comprising Kula, Belema, Offoin-Ama, Ngeje made the demand while speaking with journalists in Port-Harcourt, at the end of stakeholders’ engagement by the new operator of OML-25 with all its host communities in the Eastern Zone of the Niger Delta. 

They insisted that the new operator must inherit the liabilities of Shell before they will be allowed to operate in the area. 

The Kula stakeholders requested a separate engagement with the new operator to extract an obligatory and enforceable commitment from the company to avoid a repeat of their ugly experience with Shell. 

They said this will foster a robust company-host community relationship that prioritises sustainable development, mutual benefit, transparency, and long-term community empowerment through initiatives like infrastructure development, education, healthcare, and economic opportunities, while also ensuring environmental stewardship.  

A prominent stakeholder of Kula Kingdom, Chief Anabs Sara-Igbe, said part of the liabilities are non-implementation of the 2019 Agreement between Shell, the host communities, Federal Government, NNPC and Belemaoil. 

He lamented that “the host communities suffered untold hardship, total neglect, deprivation, enslavement and the worst form of human backwardness for 67 years of the operation of Shell in the area.” 

Sara-Igbe said the new operator of OML-25 should also be ready to inherit the unemployment in the area as well as lack of basic amenities and pollution of the environment by Shell. 

On his part, President of the National Youth Council of Nigeria, Sukubo Sara-Igbe, also, an indigene of Kula expressed deep concern over the decision of the new operator to retain the staff of Shell who were complicit in the dispute with the host communities, saying it may perpetuate a circle of conflict and undermine the trust of the host communities. 

He said the new operator must address the age-long menace of youth unemployment in the host communities by prioritising employment and economic empowerment in its policies and programs to guarantee sustainable oil production in the area.