President Muhammadu Buhari has
ordered the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to take over
operatorship of OML 11 from Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC).
In a letter signed by Abba Kyari,
Buhari’s chief of staff and addressed to Maikanti Baru, group managing
director, NNPC, the president said the “take over” should not be “later than
April 30”.
Buhari said the NNPC will now
operate OML 11 through its exploration and production arm, the Nigeria
Petroleum Development Company (NPDC).
The letter, acknowledged by the
NPDC, said a “smooth re-entry to the delicate situation in Ogoniland” must be
ensured.
The NPDC was ordered to confirm
the assumption of the operatorship by March 2.
OML 11 located in Ogoniland,
Rivers state, contains 33 oil and gas fields, with eight producing as at 2017.
SPDC has come under fire for two
large spills — running into tens of thousands of barrels — that hit the Bodo
community in Ogoniland in 2008.
After members of the community
took the oil giant to a UK court in 2012, Shell accepted liability for the Bodo
spills, agreeing to pay £55 million in compensation.
Other groups had filed a lawsuit
against the federal government in November 2018, to stop the resumption of oil
production on oilfields in Elema, Gokana, Khana and Tai local government areas
— all in Ogoniland.
The Conference of Ogoni
Traditional Rulers and Chiefs, one of the plaintiffs, had argued that
government cannot issue a mining license over OML 11, until the
proposed/recommended cleanup and remediation exercise is undertaken and fully
implemented United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).
In February, the federal
government said it has mobilised 16 contractors to carry out environmental
remediation and cleanup of oil spill in Ogoniland.
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