Oil, gas divestment: Niger Delta communities seek transparency, inclusion

Oproducing communities in Niger Delta ha ve called for transparency and accountability in the ongoing divestment in the oil and gas industry.

The communities’ representatives said this after a meeting in Port Harcourt where they urged the Federal Government and oil corporations to open up and ensure transparency in the ongoing oil and gas divestment scheme.

The meeting was organised by the Human and Environmental Development Agenda ( HEDA Resource Centre) in partnership with the National Human Rights Commission ( NHRC) with the support of the Macarthur Foundation. Recall that in Januar y this year, oil giant, Shell Nigeria Plc, agreed to sell its onshore oil concerns to local companies in a deal worth $ 1.3 billion to meet the long- term objective of divesting itself from the increasingly difficult operating environment that is characterised by rising sabo tage, communal strife, oil theft and concerns of climate change global movement. The idea of divestment by International Oil Companies ( IOCS) began in 2010.

The Chairman, HEDA Resource Centre, Olanrewaju

Suraju, lamented that oil and mental development in gas divestment issues are ridNigeria. dled with issues of corrupSuraju said: “Corruption tion, human rights abuses, occurs in a wide spectrum of secrecy, disguised beneficial our human activities, includownership and inad equate ing in the democratic consideration for the overall processes, public and corpoplight of host communities. rate governance, resource He said that corruption ownership, allocation and remains a major clog on the distribution, including oil wheel of human and environ- and gas related issues.”