Oil & Energy

Bodo Community And Shell Compensation

Published

11 years ago

February 23, 2015

Even as most Nigeri
ans currently struggle with the effects of the austerity measures declared by the Federal Government in response to the present economic reality in the country, the people of Bodo community in Gokana local government area of Rivers State are celebrating their economic fortune.
From the right, left and centre of this Ogoni community, many new buildings are being erected, old ones undergoing massive renovations; new fishing gears, canoes, vehicles and wholesome household items are being acquired.
This socio-economic boom in Bodo is as result of the N25 billion compensation paid to the natives by the Anglo-Dutch oil giant, Shell Production Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) for a massive oil spill in the area in 2008.
Reliving the situation in an interview with The Tide in his house on Thursday, the Chairman, Bodo Council of Chiefs, Chief Livinus Kiebel, said “Bodo is agog. People who have not seen N10,000 before in their life are receiving at least N600,000.00 individual claims, as compensation, so you can see the joy in our faces, people dancing and women celebrating. It has never happened before in the community.
It is a long battle that started since 2008 when the community suffered a major oil spill from SPDC’s 28-inch pipeline from Bodo to Bonny Trans Atlantic, laid as far back as 1958,” he said.
He said due to the effect of salt water and corrosion on the pipes, there was rapture eruption and spill which gushed out uncontrollably for over one month polluting the water, killing seafoods, mangrove and in face all the acquatic life in the area.
Kiebel stated that when the community drew the attention of the oil company to the serious situation, “as usual, SPDC denied responsibility and started giving one excuse or the other. It said the spill was caused by a third party and illegal bunkering activities. And for over one month, the crude kept gushing.
“But we stood our ground, insisting that Shell must pay compensation. When we realised the company would not budge, we took our matter to the government through the Ministry of Environment at the state and federal levels and also drew the attention of some relevant NGOs and civil society organisaitons”, he said.
The Bodo Chiefs councils chairman remarked that when SPDC discovered that Bodo community meant business, they brought their experts and because of the influence of the joint negotiation between SPDC, Government, NGOs and civil society groups, the company accepted the spill was as a result of equipment failure and there fore accepted responsibility.
He disclosed that at first, the company applied its divide-and-rule system by covnering the youths and promising to pay them N10 million and that this angered the youths who reported the ploy to the entire community.
Kiebel, who is a former local government chairman said the community hired the services of a legal luminary and son of Ogoni, B.M Wifa (SAN) who then sued SPDC before a Federal High Court in Port Harcourt.
When that was moving at a slow speed because of the oil politics in Nigeria and the unwillingness of Federal Government to show interest, the community decided to drag Shell to The Heague.
“One of our sons, a lecturer at the University of Port Harcourt, suggested a legal firm, Leighday and Company – a legal firm which he uncovered through research had successfully handled similar matters in Africa insisting we could get justice through the law firm,” he continued, saying Leighday effectively handled the matter.
According to him, representatives of the firm were in Bodo Creek to Bonny and all over the community boarders to see the extent of the spill and damages and at last sued for both individual and communal claims.
Form more than six months, he said Leighday law firm interviewed our people, filmed and captured in many forms, cases of those whose livelihood depend on the sea and after the legal battle, Shell settled for a compensation of N25 billion, which was below but we decided to accept the offer.
Commending the Leiyhday law firm, Kiebel said they were professional and straight forward in their approach and the ability of the firm to secure justice for Bodo community has brought transformation to the area as the people happily invest their money into many economic activities.
One of the women told The Tide that, the name Leighday is a source of big joy to her and her family.
“I have five children. I received a huge sum and my children also got theirs individually and when we pooled the money together, it was like a big dream.
I thank Leighday, I thankGod for the turn around the development has brought to my family.
The respondent who identified herself as Mama Lebari noted that even women and youths who do not know how to speak English Language all know and sing with the name Leighday.
Another respondent, Mercy Job said, “I now own my own beauty Salon. I leant Salon business for past 5 years but could not open my own shop.
But today this big shop is mine and the next store with provisions and foodstuff is also mine. I thank Jehovah for his blessings.
“If I marry and born any child whether male or female, I don’t care, I will name that child “Leighday” to mark the time I met this turn around in my life,”she said.
Job said her family was living in a very small family house of three rooms but today, they have almost completed a five-bedroom flat with a three-room boys quarter.
A Bodo-based businessman who hails from Abia State, Charles Amobi, said he deals on building materials and that the economic transformation has reflected well in his business.
“The sale I normally make for one week before, I atimes make that in one day and my customers pay instead of buying on credit. I hope that this situation will remain,” he remarked.
The Tide gathered that churches in the community are also richer because of the economic boom in the community. Chief Kiebel who confirmed this said, “my church, St Patrick Catholic Church, has gotten N20 million through tithe and appreciations for members who received the compensation.
As a mark of appreciation, the traditional ruler also said the community was arranging a special package to Leighday legal firm which he could not disclose to me as a way of appreciating the firms support to his people.
However, the good fortune is not going without adverse effects on the community.
According to kiebel, two cases have been brought before his palace. “Some husbands have fallen apart from their wives. They asked their wives to bring their share so that they could combine it as part of joint account but the women refused and are asking for divorce instead,” said Kiebel.
He also said, that more young men are acquiring wives now that the money is available.

Chris Oluoh &

Illegal Refineries being destroyed by Naval Officers in Warri recently

Lydia William

Oil & Energy

Resource Wars Are Here and Oil Is the First Casualty

Published

17 hours 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

17 hours 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

17 hours 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