Niger Delta indigenes give terms for modular refineries’ takeoff

The proposed investments in community-based modular refinery projects across oil-bearing states of the Niger Delta will become a pipedream unless government reviews its model to accommodate divergent interests among youths in the region, according to stakeholders of the region.
Apart from the sudden reawakening of the old debate — on whether it is the beneficiary states or their oil-bearing communities that should manage the extant 13 per cent derivation fund — elders and youths in the area yesterday expressed misgivings about a refinery programme that lacks active indigenous participation and government’s readiness for 100 per cent funding.
But the presidency yesterday said the community-based refinery project is a genuine effort to provide alternative to illegal refining in the Niger Delta. Mr. Laolu Akande, the spokesman of the Acting President, said Minster of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr. Ibe Kachikwu, already has details of the programme. He said government would continue to engage oil communities to resolve all issues in executing the projects. According to Akande, the community-based modular refinery programme has always been discussed at the ministerial committee level. “The project will be private-sector driven ,” he assured. Divergent opinions coming from elders and youths, from a region government expects to host the all-important projects, portend continued unrest, militancy, economic sabotage and environmental hazards caused by illegal refining by impoverished youths. “Indeed, there is the absolute need to ensure that host communities in the Niger Delta buy into the project and that they do this as a collective responsibility,” says Moritz Abazie, who runs Strides Energy and Maritime Ltd, a Port Harcourt-based oil and gas services firm. “Any thing short of a collective agreement on the way forward will render the community-based modular refinery programme of government a pipedream and worsen our economic woes, ” he said.
Mr. Francis Ewherido, an Urhobo indigene of the Niger Delta who runs the Titan Insurance Brokers, agrees that the project could change the fortunes of the region but warns against hijack by a ew individuals. “The equity arrangement should be such that will benefit the majority of the people,” he said.
A modular refinery is made up of smaller and mobile parts that are more easily fabricated and more quickly transported to site. They come in different sizes with varying capacities normally lower than conventional refineries.
The official plan was evolved to curb the menace of dangerous and unauthorised artisanal refining after Acting President Yemi Osinbajo toured the restive Niger Delta communities on the behest of President Muhammadu Buhari. Sequel to that visit, the Buhari administration approved that new licences be issued for community-modular refineries to keep the ‘illegal’ activities of artisanal refiners in check. The arrangement allows a 40-per cent equity for oil-bearing communities while the Federal Government augments the effort through a 60-percent investment through its agencies, including the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), among others.
Even as elders and youths from the region yesterday re-iterated their support for the programme they told The Guardian that they were not willing to play a less than important role in the project and should therefore be allowed to determine 100 per cent of the investments.

POSTED BY:OPUOMONI PRIYE
DATE:05/11/2017