Having waited patiently for the Asset Management Team and Sterling Global Oil Exploration and Energy Company, working with the NNPC Exploration and Production Limited (NEPL), to operationalise the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), Delta State host communities, under OML 26, have said they have ran out of patience and are now prepared to take their destinies into their hands.

According to a statement signed by Ere Okpako and Angela Akpofa on behalf of Isoko Grassroots Mobilisers, the group noted that Chapter 3 of the PIA provided the responsibility of the settlor to the host communities.

The statement said: “It is expected that three per cent of the settlors’ yearly Operating Expenditure (OPEX) is set aside for community development through the Host Community Development Trust (HCDT). But strangely, the settlor only made a paltry remittance to the HCDT of OML 26, contrary to the PIA.

“This was in October 2025, nearly two years after the inauguration of the HCDT. Curiously, the remittance was short-paid by about N2.4 billion.”

The group disclosed that the Board of Trustees (BOT) raised an alarm about the short payments by drawing the settlor’s attention to the shortfall in November 2025, but the company didn’t respond until December 22, 2025, when a virtual meeting was held without any resolution, despite the company’s assurance that it would respond within two weeks.

It noted that a petition to the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) followed in January 2026, which now hosted a tripartite meeting of NEPL, the HCDT BOT at the NUPRC Abuja office on April 15, 2026, where the operator categorically said the shortfall was allegedly spent on Special Intervention Projects contrary to the PIA 2021 and the Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMoU) before the advent of the PIA.

“Although the PIA allows for a one-year transition, that one year post-PIA elapsed in August 2022,” it added.

The group expressed concern that the company’s Asset Management Team (AMT), led by Sterling Global Oil Exploration and Energy Company, is playing games and is no longer acceptable.

“We are aware of the efforts of the BOT to ensure development of the communities, but paucity of funds has been a clog in this direction,” the group said.