Stakeholders at the public presentation of a book on marginal fields allocation in Lagos, called for openness, transparency and accountability in the process.
The book was the fruit of an investigation on marginal field allocation carried out by the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA Resource Centre).
The book is titled: “Marginal Fields Allocation, Regulators’ Independence and Environmental Injustice: Paradox of Beneficial Ownership and the Host Communities.”
Speaking at the event, Mr Lanre Suraju, Chairman, HEDA Resource Centre, said that it was important to allow openness and accountability mirror the process of marginal oil field allocation.
“We really want to see how accountability will lead us to transparency, good governance and service delivery to people,” Suraju said.
He said that it was imperative to ascertain the charcter of persons and companies that operate within the oil sector before one can hope for any form of accountability.
He noted that beyond the economic importance of oil exploration, there is also the environmental and community implications of operations in the oil and gas sector.
“Nigeria is said to be the most polluted place in the world, especially in the Niger Delta where oil companies exist.
“With the recent marginal oil field allocations and processes, HEDA has decided, with our partners to review what transpired in the allocations of those licenses and its implications on the character of the organisations.
“We find that out of about 38 of them, t18 of them where not registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission, and many of them were not even filling out their annual returns.
“And the companies without adequate registration and recognition where found to be awarded contracts,” Suraju said.
The HEDA chairman said that the interesting and sad aspect was that the process actually started with the defunct Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).
He explained that the development took place before the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) that eventually brought about the Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Cpommission (NUPRC).
“We expected that the NUPRC will further do due diligence in determining the character and status of these companies before the allocations.
“We charge the CAC, NUPRC the NEITI to collaborate to charge the companies on the need to declare the benefial owners of these companies.
” And at the same time collaborate with the ICPC and EFCC to see how much of short change Nigeria has suffered.
“If they were not registered, how do they file returns?
“It means Nigeria has lost a huge amount of resources to these companies with major operations within the oil and gas sector of the country,” Suraju said.
He said that to address the environmental injustice to the peoples of the Niger Delta, civil society organisations, the media and the diplomatic community need to come together to the help of the peoples of the Niger Delta,
“Before we ever allow them to divest and move away from Nigeria, they actually must clean the mess and pollution in the community where they operated and compensate them.
“At the same time, they need to pay the necessary due under the PIA for their decommissioning and abandonment responsibility.
He urged the government to hold the multinational accountable to the environmental degradation and pollution in the Niger Delta before they leave.
“People now become poorer because they cannot go to farm nor fish, the government needs to see it from this point of view,” Suraju said.
In his goodwill message, the Executive secretary of NEITI, Dr Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, commended HEDA and its partners for their unwavering commitment to fostering transparency, accountability and justice within Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.
Orji said that the findings from the book call heightened scrutiny, transparency and accountability.
“It demands an unwavering commitment to ensuring that the processes are open, competitive and fair,” Orji said.
The book reviewer, Prof. Dayo Ayoade, Specialist in Energy, Extractives and Governance, said that after almost isix decades of the exploration of oil at Oloibiri, a proper clean up of the community was yet to be carried out.
.”We all need to urge the government and the regulator to clean up the place so that the people can go back to their business,” Ayoade said.
