The Rivers State Government has urged the National Assembly to remove some items that are not beneficial to the host communities and Niger Delta from the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).
One of those items is the frontier enclaves.
The State Commissioner for Energy and Natural Resources, Dr. Peter Medee, made the call while interacting with newsmen at the weekend, in Port Harcourt.
He explained that the frontier enclaves in the bill would give room for funds to be taken from the federation account to carry out oil exploration activities which ideally should be shared among the states and host communities.
According to him, much of such funds had been deployed to exploration activities in the Chad Basin, some years back, without achieving desired results.
“No federal funds was used when the British Petroleum was exploring crude oil in Oloibiri and Rivers State. Everything was driven by the private sector.
“We as a State, we are interested in equity distribution and good regulatory system, and Nigerian people should not take the Niger Delta people for granted.
“Here in Rivers State, there is a system that is already working, which the Indorama Petrochemical is using to operate in the host community with equity.
“We want the Federal Government to emulate the Indorama system that is already working in Rivers State, and our concern is that Rivers State benefit fully when the bill is passed”, Mede said.
The commissioner also hinted that the gas resources that are being flared in the country run into several billions of dollars every year, adding that Nigeria is the largest producer of gas in Africa, and ninety in the world.
The Tide reports that the PIB, which is still before the National Assembly, has other items in the bill which looks at the development of the host communities.

By: Corlins Walter