Explorers raise alarm over safety of facilities

By Ayomide Owonibi, Lagos

A deep ocean oil platform

Oil explorers, under the aegis of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), have expressed concern over the vandalism of oil facilities in the Niger-Delta region.

SPE said the destruction of the oil facilities by militants would adversely affect development in the region.

SPE chairman, Mr. Bayo Ojulari, said in Lagos that the activities of the militants would stifle foreign investment in the country’s oil sector.

“The attacks will discourage foreign investments and create instability in the sector as people are not ready to work in the region for fear of being attacked.”

He was speaking against the backdrop of a notice by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) to oil workers to leave the region by June 8 or risk being attacked.

He noted that the real struggle for the development of the region had been hijacked by some unscrupulous elements.“There are three militant groups — those clamouring for development and want the companies to implement certain things.

“The second group is made up of people using the struggle for their political gains to cause instability while the third are the poor criminals.“The criminals specialise in attacking oil wells, stealing crude and destroying pipelines,” Ojulari stressed.

He accused the third group of being the masterminds of the quit notice to oil companies. According to him, oil companies had spent about one billion dollars on the development of the region. Annually, each company spends between 100 and 250 million dollars for development of the area.

“In all, the joint venture gives about 90 per cent of income generated from the oil rich communities to the federal, states and local governments,”Ojulari said. He said it was difficult to notice some of the developments in the area because the monies were given to the people to execute the projects.

“The monies given to them go into micro-credit, construction of schools, water, empowerment programmes and sponsorship of students both within and outside the country,”Ojulari said.