Nigeria Government needs to make sure that Shell safely dismantles its old infrastructure or make payment to remove them from the Niger delta before its leaves, m a report on the environmental impact of the activities of multinational companies states.
Shell BOP is geared to exit from Nigeria’s onshore oil and gas operations after an agreement in January was brokered, to sell the business to a consortium of five mostly local companies for $2.4 billion.
The deal is the latest by an international oil company looking to leave Nigeria’s troubled onshore oil sector. But the cost of disassembling old assets could leave the country with environmental degradation, according to the report by the not for profit Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO).
SOMO’s executive director, Audrey Gaughran had said:
“The big issue is that Shell is leaving onshore Niger delta and leaving behind potentially a massive bill for (clean up).”
Layi Fatona, the vice chairman of ND Western, one of the five companies in the Renaissance consortium, had not commented directly on the issue nor said how much it had budgeted to clean up, but Fatona had told Reuters that the grouping will follow the country’s legal requirements.
Meanwhile, the head of Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, Gbenga Komolafe had told Reuters that oil majors would need to adhere with the rules on decommissioning among others before they are given consent to exit.
Mr Komolafe had not named Shell and the regulator had refused declined to comment on whether the oil major or other companies have been compliant with the rules. But the government has indicated that it would not be barring the Shell deal.
Communities in the delta are also asking for environmental restoration or compensation from Shell for land destroyed by historical oil spills.
