The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) with its joint venture partners, Shell Production Development Company (SPDC) and Belema OIL, have resolved the dispute on the operation of Oil Mining Lease (OML) 25.
The feuding group at the signing of the dispute closure agreement in Abuja on Tuesday agreed that operations at the oil well would take off in the next 10 days.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, while signing the agreement, thanked all the parties stressing that the step signified the beginning of a new chapter in the industry.
Mr Sylva said the aim of the ministry was to ensure an oil industry that worked and operated in harmony and in unity.
“When I came into the office, the issue was one of the problems that came on the table; there were so many letters from communities complaining about the problem.
“I just decided to invite Shell to hear its own part of the story but fortunately, the Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mele Kyari, had intervened in the matter.
“So, I have the honour now to thank him for this great intervention.
“And also thank Shell and Belema for cooperating to ensure that there is closure to this matter that has bedeviled the industry for so long,” he said.
He said one of the aims of the Petroleum Industry was to ensure zero loss in the industry and production got to destination.
According to him, zero loss is not loss from pipelines but lost to the country, especially with assets that can produce but for some reasons bug down by leakage issues.
He said that the biggest beneficiaries of the agreement were not the companies but the communities, especially those in Belema which had been suffering since the beginning of the dispute.
The minister commended the NNPC, Shell and the Belema Oil for agreeing to resolve the dispute.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that operation in OML 25 stopped since in 2017 when the host communities sent SPDC away from operating in the facility over issues of unemployment and underdevelopment among others.
(NAN)