Oil communities in Bayelsa are resisting moves by oil firms to suspend social obligations under the old Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMoU) for the new template provided for in the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021.
The PIA l operating firms to set aside three per cent of their operating expenses for development of their host communities to be managed by Host Community Development Trusts (HCDT).
Under the GMoU, oil firms chose projects to execute and determine the budget and unikatrralky award the contracts whereas the PIA empowers the communities to drive their develioment process.
The phased winding down of the GMoU projects has met with resistance as the communities say that the old projects must run side by side with projects to be funded from the three per cent Host Community Development Fund.
The concerns of continuation of GMoU projects cut across oil communities in Ogbia, Yenagoa, Brass, Nembe, Ogbia, Southern Ijaw and Ekeremor Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Bayelsa.
Reacting to suspected moves to jettison the electricity component of the old GMoU, youths and women from Kolo Creek Cluster communities of Elebele, Imiringi, Otuasega and Oruma shut down the Otuasega manifold and the Kolo Creek Logistics base, operated by Shell.
The action was in protest over the suspected abandonment of electricity supply to the communities by the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC).
Mr. Okala Precious, a representative of for the Kolo! Creek Cluster communities,, said they were angry over the failure of SPDC to restore electricity supply to the area despite several meetings.
The protest compelled the oil firm to restore electricity supply as the community occupied the facility and disrupted the operations in the facility.
While SPDC inaugurated eight HCDT in May 2023 and set aside over $50 million to fund the trusts, the composition of the Estuary Area (EA) fields has been ridden with compatibility crisis.
The EA host communities are kicking against the composition of the EA HCDT which clustered 12 communities as incorporated by SPDC.
Seven of the 12 communities who insisted that foisting the 12 communities who have cultural differences under one HCDT was a recipe for crisis was unacceptable to them.
The EA host communities in Ekeremor LGA, on May 18 took a protest to the EA oilfields, off the Atlantic coastline to press home their demand for a separate trust.
,Mr Timothy Geregere, representative of the seven host communities, said that the meeting between SPDC officials and the communities to resolve the face-off on May 30, ended without achieving desired results.
The community leader said that in spite of the provocative stance of the SPDC officials at the meeting, the seven communities has maintained a peaceful occupation of the EA field.
He explained that the host communities would only resort to shutting down the facility as a last resort if ongoing mediation by Bayelsa government fails.
Reacting to concerns of discarding the GMoU projects, Mr MichaelAdande, Spokesman for SPDC said that the company was committed to continuing with approved projects under the old GMoU templates.
Adande explained that the HCDTs will inherit the GMoU projects and funds that had already accrued to the erstwhile GMoU.
“Some of the GMoUs still have funds in their accounts which will be inherited by the HCDTs which will continue implementation of approved projects.
“SPDC will continue to support approved GMoU projects as the HCDTs will drive the development process in our host communities going forward,” Adande said