LAGOS (AFP) – Shell on Thursday said it had launched a review of its oil and gas assets in Nigeria’s massively polluted Ogoniland region, resuming work in the area two decades after unrest forced the company to pull out.
The Anglo-Dutch oil major said the move was not part of an attempt to restart oil production in Ogoniland, describing it instead as a bid to comply with a 2011 UN report that called for one of the world’s biggest ever environmental clean-ups.
“The intention is to determine the state of our facilities since we suspended operations in the area in 1993, and determine how best to decommission them,” the head of Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC), Mutiu Sunmonu, said in a statement.
Spokesman Precious Okolobo told AFP the review was “a key step” in complying with the United Nations Environmental Programme report, which detailed the devastating impact that decades of oil pollution had brought to the southern region.
The report called for the oil industry and the Nigerian government to contribute $1 billion (762 million euros) to a clean-up fund for the region, adding that restoration could take up to 30 years.
Among the most condemned episodes in Ogoniland’s past was the 1995 execution of renowned environmental activist Ken Saro Wiwa under the regime of dictator Sani Abacha. Wiwa had fiercely criticised Shell before his death.
His brother, Harry Wiwa, told AFP Thursday that Shell could be welcomed back to the region after the two-decade absence.
“If the purpose is to clean the spills, they are welcome but UNEP should supervise the exercise… The problem we have with Shell is that it is not socially responsible,” said Wiwa, an activist with the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People.
Okolobo said the company has sent community outreach staff to the region in recent years, but the review exercise marks the first time oil and gas workers have been to Ogoniland since the pull-out.
The firm still controls at least seven oil fields in the area, as well as flowstations, gas plants and pipelines, according to the SPDC statement.
Nigeria’s is Africa’s top oil producer, but the country remains deeply impoverished, partly due to massive corruption in the energy sector. Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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Shell must understand that we the Ogoni's don't want them back for opertions any more. Cleaning up the mess they left behind is no problem but must be monitored by an international body and a body of independent experts to acertain the truth in their move.
ReplyDeleteFirst it must be sound loud and clear that our oil field is not to be allocated as oil block to any notherner or anybody whatsover. The right to operate here belong to the Ogoni people and the Federal government under an autonomous government of whatsover name u might call it- a 'state' of our own or anyother authority of our own. The so call 'Land use decree' does not apply here. Land use here is strickly the peoples business.Period. No form of disguise will ever work here. We are determined to fight the outsiders and our greedy and over ambitious brothers who will try to aid them, with the last drop of our blood until justice is done. The oil in elswhere can go for the Office of the President. We don't care but our's is for our people and the good people of the world that will support us in our quest for justice before peace. This is Alhaji Kilsi Karikpo praying. May Allah hear accept our prayers.Ameen. Great Ogoni Peoaple remain staedfast and non-violent. After all non violent approach works.