The Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission has called on stakeholders to work collaboratively to ensure that the divestment process by international oil companies delivers long-term value, environmental sustainability, and socio-economic benefits for the federal government and people of the Niger Delta region.
NUPRC Assistant Director, Health Safety, Environment and Community Affairs Unit, Success Ikpe, made the call during a one-day community town hall engagement on oil divestment and transition accountability in the Niger Delta.
The event was organised by the Human and Environmental Development Agenda, with the theme: “Strengthening Transparency, Environmental Responsibility and Community Participation in Oil Asset Divestment,” held in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on Wednesday.
Community engagement, Ikpe said, remains a key pillar for the commission, and he advocated for continuous dialogue to foster trust and mutual understanding among stakeholders.According to him, divestment of oil and gas assets is a legitimate commercial decision of operators, who are at liberty to relinquish or divest assets.
He said, “However, with the Petroleum Industry Act, 2021, such transactions are usually subject to strict regulatory oversight to ensure that they are conducted transparently, responsibly, and in a manner that protects national interest and, of course, host communities.”
Ikpe revealed that the commission has established a robust regulatory divestment framework to guide the process by which Nigeria’s oil assets are divested. He said the framework is designed to ensure accountability, continuity, and sustainability.
“The first is the technical capacity of the successor entity. The commission ensures that the successor entity demonstrates competence and a business-like approach. When it comes to capacity, the commission will naturally prefer entities with stronger capability,” he noted.
Ikpe added that NUPRC is committed to ensuring that exiting operators are held accountable for their obligations, while incoming operators are properly assessed for their technical, financial, and social capacity to sustainably manage the assets they wish to take over.
“Furthermore, the commission continues to strengthen its monitoring and enforcement mechanisms to ensure compliance with statutory provisions and to promote transparency throughout the divestment process,” he stated.
Earlier, HEDA Executive Secretary, Arigbabu Salaimon, said the town hall meeting, organised with support from Transparency International (Australia) and the Natural Resource Governance Institute, aimed to address issues surrounding divestment and its impact on Niger Delta host communities.
Salaimon said, “We are here as part of an ongoing conversation around divestment in the oil sector and the conditions of host communities, who have been feeling the brunt of oil exploration in Nigeria since 1958.“The reality is that the oil multinationals are divesting, leaving their assets offshore and going onshore, but they are also leaving many liabilities. The realities of host communities are nothing to write home about, and there are international best practices and regulations behind divestment.”
He regretted that, unlike in other countries, divestments in Nigeria are carried out without addressing environmental issues in host communities.“Before divestment can be done, liabilities need to be cleared and environmental issues resolved. Conflicts within host communities also need resolution.
“But the reverse is what we are seeing here. Oil multinationals are divesting, new companies are coming in as inheritors of such assets, but it is obvious that such companies do not have the commercial capacity to carry the burden,” Salaimon said.
The HEDA executive secretary disclosed the body’s readiness to take the federal government and oil multinationals to court to correct the anomaly.
He said, “Very soon we will be in the courts, where the inheritors of those assets may renege on their purported inheritance of such liabilities because the reality will be too big for their financial capability.”
He explained that while divestment itself is not bad, the federal government seems to be in a hurry to move ahead with multinationals, bringing in new investments to make more money without first restoring communities.
“Definitely, the communities cannot be restored to how they were, because lives have been lost, livelihoods destroyed, and futures compromised. How can we ensure that communities do not carry this burden into the future?
“Many of the communities are fishing communities, and those livelihoods have been distorted. If nothing is done, they will continue to suffer.“Compare Niger Delta to oil-producing communities in the Middle East, America, or Norway—these are progressive, well-developed, and well-advanced communities. Why should the story be different here?” he stated.
In separate submissions, environmental rights activists Dr Celestine Akpobari and Kentiebe Ebiaridor decried the way divestments have been carried out.
“The truth is that the devastation, loss of livelihood, polluted environments and water, and health hazards are still there. Those who caused the pollution have all gone,” Akpobari stated.
