• Insists HostComply a game changer
Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has denied any attempt to shrink the three per cent host community fund in the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
The regulator also insisted that a website developed to manage the process of the fund dubbed hostcomply would bring about transparency, accountability and remove human interference.
The Guardian had raised stakeholders’ concern, which noted that the NUPRC might be overstepping its boundaries by taking out of the three per cent in cunning ways through their involvement in activities that would create extra financial burdens. The stakeholders had also noted that the funding for the HostComply must be transparent and the maintenance cost if not properly planned would defeat the projected objectives of the plan.
Reacting to The Guardian’s report, NUPRC said the move is an effort to fight corruption and sanitise the system for the overall good of the country and benefit of the people.
The commission, in a document forwarded to The Guardian by its Chief Executive, Gbenga Komolafe, likened the development to resistance to sanitising the Nigerian Oil and Gas sector.
According to him, the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) is a public document as all the regulations enacted by the NUPRC) are in furtherance of the provisions of the Act.
Komolafe insisted that the regulations all passed through all necessary legal crucibles and were gazetted before inauguration for implementation.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the HostComply which is now put on the firing line by industry saboteurs and their hirelings would not be the first in recent times to attract a negative attack on the regulator. When the regulator insisted on having Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) install and manage metering devices/activities at crude oil export terminals, the same people went on overdrive because it was obvious it would no longer be business as usual.
“It is not a hidden fact that host communities in oil-bearing and producing areas in the country have been suffering devastation and deprivations of all sorts due to the activities of some critical stakeholders who short-change and create divide-and-rule systems to flourish. The Host Communities Development Trust (HCDT) was deliberately created to address the concerns of the host communities and stop the activities of the Shylocks and their collaborators. The NUPRC as the regulator is putting everything in place so that the overall intendment of the PIA on this score is effectively realised for the benefit of those envisaged.
“We are therefore not surprised that they are fighting back, using every available means, including trying to confuse and deceive members of the public with concocted narratives,” he said.
Komolafe stated that, the setting up of HostComply is in furtherance to the provision of the PIA 2021, Chapter 3, section 235(1) which mandates: “The settlor shall incorporate Host Communities Development Trust (in this Act referred to as “the trust”) for the benefit of the host communities for which the settlor is responsible.
