Oil giant-
Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) and its Joint Venture (JV) partners
contributed $29 billion to the Nigerian government between 2012 and 2016.
The company
also said that it contributed $1.8 billion into the Niger Delta Development
Company (NDDC) funds within the same period for the development of the
oil-bearing communities in the Niger Delta region.
It however,
regretted that within these periods, it had situations where their facilities
were shut down and their assets blocked by people in the region, saying such
disturbing situations hampered development in the region.
The
company’s General Manager, External Relations, Igo Weli, made this known in
Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, at the 2017 Swamp West Hub Integrated Stakeholders
Engagement Forum for Tarakiri/Egbema/Oporoma Community Leadership.
Weli,
represented by the Assets Manager, Swamp West Hub, SPDC, Mesh Maichibi,
restated, the economic contribution from SPDC JV partners to the Nigerian
government between 2012 and 2016 was $29 billion.
“We also
know that we have NDDC and the NDDC was set up to develop basically the Niger
Delta and the Federal Government has come up with a law where all the oil
companies must pay certain amount to the NDDC for them to use in development.
“As a
company, as a joint venture partner, we have contributed $1.8bn into NDDC’s
fund within the period. And the expectation is that this fund will be used for
the development of our communities’ socio-development, roads, bridges and all
of that. That is part of the joint venture development that we have,” he said.
Weli said
such disturbing situations could hamper development of the region, urging the
people to cooperate with oil companies in order to achieve maximum benefits.
“We have had
situations where our facilities were shut down. We have had situations where
our assets have been blocked, not by outsiders but by those us from this
region.
“The money
that comes into our state and local governments is from production of oil and
gas. We want all of us to help each other. When there is money in the state,
there will be investment and development.
“If we allow
these things such as oil bunkering, theft and vandalism to happen, the
resources that accrue to the state will also go down and it will affect every
sector of the state and local economy. That is why we are here. We want to
talk. I want to show you some statistics of what we as a company have done towards
the development of the region.’’
At the
second second forum titled ‘EA Hub Integrated Stakeholders Engagement Forum for
Iduwini/Mien/Kou/Bassan-West Cluster community, Weli said the essence of the
forum was to get feedback from the communities.
Represented
by the Shell’s Stakeholders Relations Manager, Dr. Alice Ajeh, he said: “The
essence is to have continuous conversation with our communities, critical
stakeholders for the feedback they have been giving us over time.
“They want
us to have a continuous dialogue and this is one of the ways we feel we can
bring all of them together to really think about the future of the Niger Delta,
not just individual community issues, but collective issues of our future in
the region.
“This is
just for us to think about the future and therefore, the decisions they will
arrive will help us to know the basis of working with them. When they
understand what it is they will like the future to be like, whatever programme
we are putting in place, they will ensure that they work so that the future
will be better for us.’’
Also
speaking, the EA Assets Manager, Dele Adigun, said that having engagement with
their host communities had always been high on Shell’s agenda.
Adigun said
there was the need to work collaboratively with the host communities to ensure
sustainable peace and development in the region.
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