Oil & Energy

GMoU: 9 GPH Communities Get N221.56m

Published

15 years ago

November 8, 2010

Nine communities comprising the Greater Port Harcourt Cluster Development Board under the Shell-sponsored Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMoU) have so far received and expended the total of N221.56million for the sustainable development of their areas.

The communities include Rumuogba, Woji, and Rumuodara in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area and Elekahia, Orogbum, Oro-Abali, Rumuwoji, Mgbundukwu and Oro-Ije in Port Harcourt City Local Government Area, both in Rivers State.

The nine communities, which get an annual funding mandate of N73.8million, as one of the ten active clusters in Shell’s Eastern operations, has also judiciously expended the accruing oil revenue on various human and physical development projects designed to impact positively on the people.

The Tide learnt that these projects, which include human capital and physical infrastructure development, carefully selected and directly executed by the communities, 107 post-primary and post-secondary scholarships, 63 micro-credit and 62 skills acquisition schemes, as well as bore holes in 7 communities, transformers for 9 communities, drainage for 3 communities, civic centre in 1 community and road infrastructure upgrade in 1 community.

Speaking while commissioning the soft projects aimed at improving the human capital development effort of the communities, Shell’s Manager, Government and Community Relations, East, Fufeyi Funkakpo, said the GMoU concept, introduced in 2006 as a transparent and accountable model with clear obligations for both SPDC and host communities, was designed to eliminate the inherent weaknesses in previous social performance strategies with a view to involving communities in directly identifying, implementing and managing their own development processes.

Funkakpo stated that the GMoU strategy was Shell’s way of availing communities the opportunity to participate and benefit from the oil and gas revenues accruing from their communities, and lauded the Greater Port Harcourt Cluster Development Board, the chiefs, youths and other stakeholders in the communities for their collective efforts in actualising this dream.

The Shell manager encouraged the people to continue the good work they have been doing to enhance their livelihoods and economies, and pledged the company’s support and partnership to the sustainable development of the communities.

Rivers State Commissioner for Local Government, Chieftaincy and Community Affairs, Dr Tammy Danagogo, expressed happiness that the Shell’s GMoU process has ushered in an era of peace and order in the communities, and stressed that the climate of peace has brought with it the level of achievement so far recorded in the sustainable development effort of the government.

Represented at the celebration of development milestones by his Special Adviser, Engr Kombo Johnson, the commissioner said that without peace, the communities would not have accomplished the giant strides they were now celebrating, and charged the people to continue to build on existing atmosphere of concord, cooperation and partnership as a means of sustaining the momentum.

He noted with gladness the fact that the Greater Port Harcourt Cluster communities were one of the most peaceful in the state, and thanked them for promoting peace and security of Rivers State, emphasising that government would continue to reward peaceful communities as a way of encourage the people to participate in governance.

Also speaking, Paramount Ruler of Rumuorianwo community, Eze S.C. Wokoma, described the GMoU strategy as the brain box for the development of the Niger Delta region, and said the religious implementation of the concept has shown that if the government, corporate bodies and the communities work in synergy and strong partnership, sustainable development of the area could be achieved.

Wokoma, who chaired the occasion, said his experience with the GMoU strategy as a community leader has proven that if Niger Delta communities embrace the concept, and position themselves on the driver’s seat for the development of their respective communities, peace would return to the region, and sustainable development would be achieved in record time.

The royal father, therefore, admonished government at all tiers, to adopt the GMoU strategy in their development policies, as according to him, this would enable the government drive the dividends of democracy deeper into the very fabric of the grassroots, and thereby touch the lives of the people.

Earlier, Chairman, GPHCDB, Dickens Worlu, commended Shell and the GMoU team for mentoring the clusters to the level of growth and viability, and urged that the strategy be sustained for the development of host communities.

The GPHCDB chairman said the success of the board in the last three years could not have possible without the assistance of Shell and the state government, adding that the soft projects commissioned in the first phase on that day, and the physical infrastructure development projects expected to be commissioned on November 11 in the benefiting communities were an eloquent testimony of the fruit of cooperation and partnership for development.

Worlu also expressed appreciation to the Rivers State Government, especially the Ministry of Local Government, Chieftaincy and Community Affairs for their support and sincerity of purpose, and pledged the readiness of the people of impacted communities to cooperate and work in synergy with government and other stakeholders to fast track the development process of the state.

Dignitaries who graced the occasion are the Paramount Ruler of Elekahia community, Eze A.W. Akarolo, Paramount Ruler of Rumuodara community, Eze Ohia Chukwu, Secretary, Woji Council of Chiefs, Chief Emeka Ihunwo, Eze Ogba Iji-Nu-Ede of Rumuogba community, Eze Temple Ejekwu, Eze Kpalukwu-Ozo Orianwo, Chief F.B. Amadi, and Eze Njim Omolu of Rumu Chinwo Mati, Eze Owhonda Nyeche, among other top community leaders, women, youths as well as beneficiaries of the human capacity building programmes of the GPHCDB.

Nelson Chukwudi

Oil & Energy

Resource Wars Are Here and Oil Is the First Casualty

Published

2 weeks ago

March 30, 2026

The Tide

In just over a year, the world saw several instances of a choked supply of commodities indispensable for today’s economies and military capabilities.

From China’s restrictions on rare earths and critical minerals supply to the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz, policymakers and analysts began to realize that the control of oil, critical minerals, rare earths, and magnets is as important as building and maintaining stockpiles of advanced weapons. It also became clear that without these resources, defense and military capabilities could be weakened. The actual arms race goes hand in hand with the new battle for the resources that underpin economic, manufacturing, and advanced military development.

“Great-power competition has returned to basics: who controls the physical resources that modern economies and militaries run on,” Alice Gower, a partner at London-based political-risk advisory firm Azure Strategy, told the Wall Street Journal.

“Energy, critical minerals and industrial capacity are leverage, not just economic assets,” Gower added.

The war in the Middle East and the blockage at the Strait of Hormuz laid bare the reality of choked energy supply. The world’s most vital oil and LNG chokepoint, through which 20% of daily global trade flowed before the Iran war, has been essentially closed for most tanker traffic for more than three weeks.

The massive supply shock, the worst disruption in the oil market in history, showed that the world is dependent on energy resources, and that geography and actual physical supply matter. With so much oil and gas stranded in the Middle East, oil prices spiked to above $100 per barrel, natural gas prices in Europe doubled, and Asian spot LNG prices hit multi-year highs.

The precarious situation in the Middle East is reverberating across Asia, the region most dependent on oil and LNG supply from the Persian Gulf. Asian refiners pay sky-high premiums for non-Middle Eastern crude, many are considering cutting or have already cut processing rates, and countries have started to enact fuel-preserving measures, from four-day work weeks to bans on fuel exports.

In Europe, the gas refilling season will be the toughest yet, as Asia is outbidding Europe for spot LNG supply after Qatar’s LNG is effectively sidelined and full capacity may not return for up to five years following Iranian missile attacks last week.

Even the ‘energy independent’ United States, the world’s top oil producer, is not independent when it comes to global supply shocks of such magnitude.

The national average price of gasoline is approaching $4 per gallon nationwide, more than $1 a gallon compared to a month ago, before the start of the war.

Oil is a global resource, traded on a global market, and prices reflect fundamentals, although they have been driven by hectic trading activity on geopolitics in recent weeks. But the fundamentals show that there is no resource available to plug the gap that has opened in Middle Eastern supply. Producers are slashing output due to a lack of storage capacity, which further delays a rapid recovery in supply when this mess ends.

All this goes to show that whoever controls the Strait of Hormuz has enormous leverage on inflicting global economic pain.

While the world is focused on the Strait of Hormuz, the race for rare earths and critical minerals continues, with the U.S. and Western countries scrambling to dent China’s dominance.

Since China restricted exports of rare earth elements early in 2025, Western countries have raced to create mine-to-magnet supply chains to reduce dependence on Chinese supply in the key military and automotive industries.

China holds a 59% share of the mining of rare earths, 91% in refining, and a whopping 94% in magnet manufacturing, the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates.

The U.S. has responded by taking stakes in minerals mining companies, the launch of a U.S. Strategic Critical Minerals Reserve, known as Project Vault, and is leading efforts to break the Chinese stronghold on the pricing of these minerals critical for the defense and auto industries and national security.

Chinese dominance could be eroded, but it would take years.

Still, rising neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) supply from countries like the U.S. and Australia is set to reduce China’s market share to 69% by 2030 from 90% in 2024, Bloomberg Intelligence (BI) said in new research this month.

“We’re seeing a surge in rare-earth investment as modern technologies demand more critical materials,” said Jack Baxter, Global Metals & Mining Analyst at BI and co-author of the report.

“That said, we anticipate a significant shortfall in supply due to trade uncertainties, with lead times as long as 10 years to get new material out of the ground,” Baxter added.

“This will give pricing power to the few producers that currently are able to supply critical materials outside of China, fracturing the globalized market.”

Amid fractured markets and high geopolitical uncertainty, one thing is certain – the next arms race, alongside the actual arms race, will be for control of key resources such as oil and critical minerals.

By Tsvetana Paraskova

Oil & Energy

Transcorp Energy, Renewvia Partner On Renewable Energy Gap

Published

2 weeks ago

March 30, 2026

The Tide

Transcorp Energy Limited and Renewvia Solar Nigeria Limited have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to jointly develop renewable energy projects across Nigeria.

The move is aimed at addressing the persistent power deficit that has crumble businesses in the nation.

The agreement also outlines a longer-term plan to expand operations across Africa, positioning both firms to tap into growing demand for clean and reliable electricity.

The partnership would target commercial, industrial and residential consumers, as well as underserved communities, through a mix of off-grid and grid-connected energy solutions.

Beyond electricity provision, the collaboration would explore the aggregation and monetisation of Renewable Energy Credits generated from the projects, adding a commercial layer to the clean energy rollout.

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Transcorp Energy, Chris Ezeafulukwe, said the initiative aligns with the company’s broader strategy to expand access to sustainable power.

He noted that combining grid and decentralised energy systems would enable the company to deliver reliable electricity directly to end-users across different segments of the economy.

Chief Executive Officer of Renewvia, Trey Jarrard, described Nigeria as a critical market for the company’s African ambitions.

According to him, the partnership provides a platform to scale operations rapidly by leveraging established infrastructure and local expertise, while delivering cost-effective and resilient energy solutions.

Both companies said the agreement lays the foundation for a scalable pan-African renewable energy business, capable of supporting diverse markets and accelerating the continent’s transition to cleaner power sources.

The collaboration comes amid increasing pressure on governments and private sector players to deploy sustainable energy solutions to bridge electricity gaps, reduce reliance on fossil fuels, and support economic growth across Africa.

Oil & Energy

IYC Tasks Niger Delta Governors On Oil Field Bidding ….Decries Exclusion of Host Communities

Published

2 weeks ago

March 30, 2026

The Tide

The Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Worldwide has raised concerns over the continued exclusion of host communities from the governance of oil resources, urging Niger Delta governors to take decisive steps by bidding for oil blocs and marginal fields.

The council warned that failure to act would allow external interests to continue dominating the region’s oil assets, despite their location within host communities.

Secretary-General of the council, Maobuye Nangi-Obu, started this at the stakeholders’ meeting organised by the Pipeline Infrastructure Nigeria Limited , with participants drawn from Rivers, Abia and Imo States, in Port Harcourt, recently.

“It is time for state governments in the Niger Delta, especially Rivers State, to form oil companies that can bid for marginal fields within their territories”, he said.

Nangi-Obu expressed concern over the reported listing of about 25 marginal oil fields for allocation, noting that many were located in host communities but allegedly being assigned to non-indigenes.

In his words “They sit in Abuja and decide what happens in our region, yet we are not part of the oil governance of our own resources”.

He explained that marginal fields, though considered uneconomical by major oil firms, remain viable for indigenous operators, adding that their allocation had continued to fuel grievances in the Niger Delta.

The IYC scribe also warned of the implications of directional drilling, describing it as a growing threat to host communities.

“There could be oil wells in your community, and somebody elsewhere could be drilling that oil without your knowledge,” he cautioned.

On environmental concerns, Nangi-Obu condemned the persistent gas flaring in the region, blaming both international and local operators for failing to invest in gas processing infrastructure.

He, however, commended Pipeline Infrastructure Nigeria Limited for its engagement with host communities.

“Pipeline Infrastructure Nigeria Limited is doing the right thing by engaging stakeholders. Not all companies are doing what they are doing,” he stated.

Traditional rulers at the meeting, further acknowledged improvements linked to the company’s activities in their areas.

The Eze Ekpeye-Logbo, King Kevin Anugwo, represented by Dr Patricia Ogbonnaya, noted that “aquatic life that disappeared due to pollution is gradually returning,” attributing the development to improved environmental conditions.

Similarly, Chairman of the K-Dere Council of Chiefs, Chief Batom Mitee, said, “There is now peace in our community,” stressing, increased oil production must translate into tangible benefits for host communities.

By: King Onunwor