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Alleged crude diversion: Feuding Bayelsa communities unite, protest against SPDC
By Simon Utebor, Yenagoa
The people of two major communities in Nembe Kingdom in Bayelsa State have come together for the first time in many years to protest against the alleged diversion of crude oil by Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) despite divesting its interests to Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Production Limited in 2015.
Ogbolomabiri and Bassambiri in Nembe have been locked in an age-long conflict but community folks from both areas yesterday set aside their differences for once to demand that the multinational oil firm comply with a court order to reallocate over two million of the alleged diverted barrels of crude to Aiteo.
Community members said the alleged crude diversion had adversely affected developmental needs and projects in Nembe.
Natives of the two Island towns seem ready to bury the hatchet as they converged on the bridge connecting both areas along the Nembe Road to demand Shell’s compliance with the court’s ruling.
Brandishing several placards displaying different messages on the alleged diversion, youths and women of both communities joined chiefs and community leaders, chanting solidarity songs as they drummed and danced to drive home their message.
Recall that a federal court in Lagos issued an injunction barring the oil major from withdrawing money at 20 local banks until it ring fences potential damages in a lawsuit brought against it by Aiteo.
Aiteo is seeking about $4 billion in total over alleged problems with the Nembe Creek Trunk Line (NCTL) it bought from Shell in 2015 and over claims that Shell undercounted its oil exports.
Speaking to newsmen during the protest, the Nembe City Youth President, Albert Cons-Benibo said: “We entered a Memorandum of Understanding with Aiteo but they pleaded that we give them time to settle down, an appeal we granted graciously.
“But along the line, they failed to meet up their obligation to us. As understanding people, we gave them more time yet they failed. So when we confronted them, they accused us of sabotaging their production.
“As a community, we invited the military to help us chase out whoever was sabotaging their activities but at the end it was discovered that it was Shell that was sabotaging the crude from Aiteo facility.
“We are protesting that Shell should refund the crude they have diverted so that Aiteo can meet up its responsibility to us. Now look at Nembe today, there is no light and water for the common people. We cannot allow multinationals to come here and divert oil on our land.”
Also speaking, the President of Nembe Youths Federation, Moses Ayerite, said their demand was that Shell should return what they had diverted from Aiteo.
Ayerite said: “We have found out that the data Shell has been presenting is not correct with regard to what they get every day.
“In other words, if Aiteo is supposed to get 100 barrels per day, the meter in Shell’s Bonny Island reads that what they should get is 50 barrels per day.
“Already the matter is in court and it has been ruled that Shell should return what they diverted to Aiteo but till now they have not done anything. So we are giving them one week to comply.”
One of the protesters, the Women President of Opu-Nembe, Beredugo Afuroyanate, said “when Shell was operating here in Nembe, we used to enjoy scholarships for our children, SME training and empowerment for women and jobs for our men as part of their corporate responsibility but when they left, Aiteo came into Nembe.
“Since Aiteo came in, we have not enjoyed these benefits and our investigation revealed that Shell was diverting crude from Aiteo. As a result of that, Aiteo is unable to pay us our entitlements and carry out its CSR. From the way people understand us, we have the crude oil but when you come to our communities we are suffering.
“We are begging the Federal Government to tell Shell to pay the money they are owing Aiteo or we will come out in our numbers and stand against this oppression.”
OML 29 which consists of nine fields including the iconic Oloibiri oil field produces an average of 40,000 to 50,000 barrels per day, peaking at 90,000 barrels per day in 2017 and the least of 22,500 in 2015 holds 2.2 billion barrels of oil equivalent.
In September 2015, Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Production (E&P) Company Limited, a subsidiary of Aiteo Group announced their acquisition of OML 29 and the Nembe Creek Trunk Line and related facilities in the Eastern Niger Delta from the SPDC at $1.7 billion.
A two million barrel crude deficit between 2016 and 2018 reported at the Bonny terminal operated by SPDC has caused a dispute among several oil firms that use the oil export facility.
But the SPDC in a statement through its Media Relations Manager, Mr Bamidele Odugbesan, said allegations of involvement in oil theft or under reporting at its Bonny Crude Export Terminal were factually incorrect and misleading.
