Yemisi Izuora
Governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Douye Diri, is asking for review the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), to provide essential role for state governments in oil producing areas to oversee development projects in host communities.
Diri, made the call on Wednesday at this year’s edition of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Opportunities Fair, (NOGOF), in Yenagoa, the state capital.
Represented by his deputy, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, the Governor, noted that while the extant PIA empowers oil and gas bearing communities to directly receive oil proceeds accruing to them without recourse to state governments, hostilities emanating from the management of such funds were always being channeled to government for settlement.
He argued that bringing governments of oil bearing states on board will do a whole lot of good in the planning and implementation of community development projects because most of the communities lack the capacity to deal with such investments.
According to him: “The current PIA does not give any responsibility to the state government but rather a lot of liabilities. When the IOCs bypass the state government and deal directly with our communities which unfortunately do not have stable and reliable structures to handle such investments, it gives room for hostilities.
“Our call is on the National Assembly to look at the possibility of rejigging the PIA to prescribe statutory roles for host governments. Also, the attitude of the IOCs is not different from the indigenous oil firms that have taken over their assets.”
Diri equally expressed displeasure over the exclusion of host governments in the Shell Petroleum Development Company and Agip Oil Company’s divestment of their shares, despite its operations for over 70 years in the Niger Delta.
He said when the oil firms were divesting their shares, the state government made efforts for some shares to be allocated to it but to no avail, stressing that attitude of some of the indigenous firms that bought over the shares had not change from their predecessors in terms of lack of best operational practices.
“I say this in respect to the divestment process of Shell and Agip Oil Company. Bayelsa Government made concerted efforts that a little bit of those shares be allocated to us as a state where they have operated for over 70 years, but we were not considered.”
Commenting on the theme of NOGOF, “Driving Investment and Production Growth: Shaping Sustainable Future For Nigeria Oil and Gas Industry Through Indigenous Capacity Development,” Senator Diri commended the Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring Board for the initiative.
He, however, urged the Local Content Board to take a retrospective look at its past and present achievements and make projections into the future particularly in areas of enhancing local capacity for the youths.
“This year’s theme is quite challenging, striking and conscious. While we align ourselves with this theme and aspirations there are a few interrogations that we need to put forward.
“What capacity are we building and whose capacity are we building? Where are we with it now and where we ought to be, because there’s no way you can move forward without taking a retrospective look into your achievements, challenges and prospects”
The Governor also drew attention of the Local Content to the fact that Bayelsa was being shortchanged in the situation where it does not benefit from the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas despite providing 60 percent of its feed stock.
Also speaking, the Chairman, Federal House Committee on Local Content Development, Hon. Boma Goodhead, assured that the committee would continue to enact laws and ensure beneficial legislative oversight to promote productivity in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry.
She, however, pointed out that ” local content is not just about the number of Nigerians in the industry, but about in-country value addition with a greater part of industry value chain done in Nigeria.”
On his part, the Minister of Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, described NOGOF as not just a fair but a national platform that fosters catalytic investment opportunities cutting across the upstream, midstream and downstream areas of the Nigeria’s oil and gas industry.
He called on all participants of the 2-day event to go beyond conversations by initiating partnership and investment decisions that will shape the narrative of the industry.
The Executive Secretary of the National Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Engr Felix Omatsola Ogbe, highlighted the significance of NOGOF 2025, saying it coincides with 15 years of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act 2010.
According to him, the event will showcase opportunities in the entire oil and gas value chain as well as enable local and foreign investors build synergies in the industry and provide shareholders with credible information on upcoming projects.
In a goodwill message, the Special Adviser to the President on Energy, Mrs Olu Verheijen, said the current federal government was building an energy sector to benefit every Nigerian by driving industrialization and creation of sustainable jobs.