Member, House of Representatives and former Commissioner for Information and Communications, Rivers State, Hon Ogbonna Nwuke (right) with Commissioner for Special Duties, Barrister Dickson Umunakwe, during the public presentation of the book, Eminent Persons in Rivers State by the Rivers State Newspaper Corporation, publishers of the The Tide newspapers, yesterday

The Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mr. Andrew Yakubu,  has dismissed insinuations that the recent spate of divestments from certain onshore oil blocks by some international oil companies (IOC) could lead to crisis in the nation’s oil and gas industry.
His assurance was contained in a statement by the Group General Manager, Public Affairs of the Corporation, Ms Tumini Green, on Wednesday in Abuja.
The statement quoted the Group Managing Director of the Corporation, Mr Andrew Yakubu, as giving the assurance at the ongoing World Energy Congress in Daegu, South Korea.
According to him, the divestments are not only healthy for the oil and gas industry in Nigeria, but will also go a long way in promoting effective indigenous participation in core upstream activities.
Yakubu said the major players that were divesting had actually been sitting on each of the affected acreage and had allowed them to go fallow for years without significant development.
Yakubu said this would enable it to grow to its capacity, especially as it strived to meet the target of daily crude production of 250,000 barrels being projected by 2020.
He also said the advent of the shale gas and oil revolution in America for now would not have serious negative impact on the nation’s crude oil fortunes as earlier projected by some petroleum analysts.
He added, however, that the NNPC was moving to activate measures to ensure that the country was not caught napping if and when shale gas achieved the projected global penetration.
“Once again, the good news in this regard is that Mr President, through the Honourable Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani-Alison-Madueke, has made it clear that the maximisation of our various energy resources is central to the reforms in the oil and gas industry.
Meanwhile, the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has raised alarm on the nations economy following the exodus of oil companies to other African countries where oil has been discovered.
National President of the Union, Comrade Igwe Achese who said this at the third quadrennial delegate conference of the union in Port Harcourt said that apart from the exodus of these oil companies from the country, there is also the problem of finding buyers for our oil.
He said that the challenge has not under scored the need for diversification of the economy, but there is an increasing need for improving the quality of refining the product in the country.
Igwe stressed the need for the government to revive the four refineries in the country and also replace old pipelines while security should be provided to check vadalisation.
The NUPENG national president commended the Rivers State Government for the donation of 700 plot of land for the construction of a tank park.
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has charged the leadership of NUPENG to champion the reform in the oil industry.
National president of NLC Comrade Abdulwahid Umar who gave the charged during the conference in Port Harcourt said that the conference should provide opportunity to reappraise the performances of the oil and gas industry with the view to growing the economy.
The NLC president said that the challenges facing the industry demands total commitment by all to address it and called for the increase in demotic refining of petroleum products to create more jobs for the teeming unemployed youths in the country.
While Rivers State Government has empowered 180 Fadama Community Association with the sum of N529,580,811 for various farming activities.
The state Governor, Rt Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi who disclosed this during his years world food day in Port Harcourt said that N95,954,358 was also disbursed for the construction of 38 boreholes in 18 communities across the state.
The governor who was represented by the Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr. Emmanuel Chindah also said that 200-tons capacity cold rooms and 360 modern markets were constructed in 18 communities while 75 kilometres for road were built in 15 communities in the state.
He described the theme of the celebration which is sustainable food systems for food security and nutrition as appropriate, pointing out that, it was chosen to highlight the role of food and nutrition in the value chain towards eradicating extreme hunger and poverty in the country.
The governor said that government s also making sure that our policies are aligned to boost the on-going transformation agenda in the agricultural sector by creating a conducive macro-economic climate that stimulates private sector investment in agriculture and rural development and disclosed more than 50,000 farmers have been registered in the growth enhancement scheme (GES).
In his address the Commissioner for Agriculture Mr. Emmanuel Chindah described good nutrition as a key to developing and maintaining good health.
The commissioner whose address was read by the permanent secretary, Dr. Alex Hart assured that government will continue to help small scale farmers to produce more food and increase their income.