By Our Correspondent
Oil production activities were today disrupted when youths and women from five host communities stormed the Jones Creek oil field operated by Nigerian Petroleum Development Company and shut it down.
The protesters ordered workers to vacate the flow station in their best interests, thus paralyzing production activities, there was no casualty.
With this development, a total of 250,000 barrels per day of crude oil production have been shut in and cutting the nation’s aggregate oil production output.
Hosts to the Jones Creek flow station include five host communities, namely, Kokodiagbene, Okerenkoko, Akpatagbegbe, Akpataegbemu and Omadino, all in Warri South West local government area of Delta State.
Their key grievance, according to a source in the area, is the breach of the agreement that Nest Oil Plc, a major contractor to NPDC and Neconde Energy would only embark on construction work, lay pipes but would not hook up to the well heads until the approval of a new Memorandum of Understanding.
But according to the source, Nest Oil Plc, an indigenous oil firm, reneged on that undertaking ‘’and secretly embarked on the hook up which the communities uncovered’’.
The source further added that the leaders of the communities ordered the shutdown of the flow station because the companies have not been honest to them, as their entries into the area were ‘’fraudulent in the sense that there was no MoU with the communities before operations’’.
‘’Besides, the companies continue to lie to the communities that they will engage them. Till now, the communities have remained in the dark. The communities do not know their fates’’, the source added.
Confirming the shutdown of the facility, spokesman of the Jones Creek Communities, Comrade Sheriff Mulade, accused the oil firms of skirting their Corporate Social Responsibilities to the host communities and advised Nest Oil Plc to pull out of the area to avoid crisis.
His words: ‘’Our position is that Nest Oil Plc has not lived up to expectations. The company dumped the earlier agreement reached between the communities in the presence of security agents.
‘’They are hiding under the cover of security agencies to enter the area and operate. So, we are appealing to the federal government to call NPDC/ Neconde to order, to avoid the escalation of the crisis. What they are doing is because of the security presence otherwise they would not have violated the agreement.
‘’We are calling on NPDC and Neconde managements as a matter of urgency to call for a meeting to discuss their Freedom to Operates (FTOs) in the area, otherwise they should pack out of our communities. These two indigenous firms have fragrantly and fraudulently entered Jones Creek without permission from the communities.
The communities urged the federal government to dig into the activities of NPDC, Neconde Energy and its major contractor, Nest Oil Plc, alleging that the award of contracts have not been following due process and the local content policy of government.
They however commended the Army personnel of 3 Battalion for the role they have been playing in sustaining peace in the area and urged them to continue to play the mediating role as their demands were germane.
