Belema Oil replaces Shell in Ogoni

THERE are strong indications that full oil production activities will soon resume in Ogoni land after being shut down for over 22 years following the mass protest by the people and civil disturbance in the area occasioned by the total neglect and injustice on the people by the Nigerian government and the Shell Petroleum Development Company, (SPDC), the operators of the oil fields.

   The latest development is a product of a unanimous decision and endorsement of an indigenous oil producing company, Belema Oil Producing Ltd, by major oil producing communities, stakeholders, representatives of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, MOSOP, the apex socio-cultural organization in Ogoniland, and religious leaders from the area.

   Announcing their choice of a new operator of the six Ogoni Oil fields, (Bomu oil field, Korokoro oil field, Bodo West Oil field, Yorla Oil Field, Ebubu Oil Field, Tai Oil Field) to the people, oil bearing communities, represented by their respective Paramount Rulers, Community Development Committees, Chiefs and Elders and other Traditional Leaders, Youths and Women Leaders, as well as the MOSOP leadership led by its current Secretary-General, on Monday, February 2, 2015, converged at the Palace of the Chairman of the Supreme Council of Ogoni Traditional Rulers and Chairman of the Rivers State Council of Traditional Rulers, His Royal Majesty, King G. N. K. Gininwa, in Korokoro, Tai Local Government Area, first of all, to appraise the issue of the divestment of OML II by the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, SPDC.

   At the Ogoni Oil Communities Convocation, different speakers lamented the reckless operations of the former operator of the fields, SPDC, and the untold hardship, woes and anguish the people experienced, not to talk of the huge and irredeemable devastated environment, a once attractive land with resourceful forests and flora.