Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC), facilitators of Project with Artisanal Crude Oil Refiners (PACOR) for Modular Refineries in the Niger Delta, has commended the Federal Government for approving three modular refineries for six states in the region.
The group also called for the establishment of Presidential Artisanal Crude Oil Refining Development Initiative (PACORDI) to innovatively modify and legalise artisanal refining in the Niger Delta similar to the Presidential Artisanal Gold Mining Development Initiative (PAGMI) in parts of the North and Western Nigeria with a further call for the removal of Cross River State from the pilot phase of the project since it was not an oil-producing state.
The group stated this in a press statement released in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital and signed by its Executive Director, FynefaceDumnameneFyneface, in reaction to Federal Government’s proposal on January 19 to establish 18 modular refineries, three each in Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, Cross River and Rivers states.
The organisation said the acceptance of the Federal Government to establish three modular refineries per state was one of the achievements and successes of its advocacy on modular refineries because the Federal Government at the National Summit for the Integration of Artisanal/Modular Petroleum Refineries Operation in Nigeria into the national economy on March 16 and 17, 2021, had insisted on one modular refinery per state, but the organisation demanded and insisted on three per state which had now eventually been approved and granted by the Federal Government.
Fyneface said the organisation has been carrying out and implementing the directive of President MuhammaduBuhari, represented by Vice President, Prof. YemiOsibanjo, since 2017,when he promised modular refineries.
He commended the Minister of State for Environment, Mrs. Sharon Ikeazor, who represented Mr. President at the inauguration of NOSDRA laboratory in Port Harcourt on January 10, 2022, for the formation of cooperative societies for modular refinery licenses with the establishment of three “Modular Refinery Multipurpose Cooperative Society Ltd” based on three senatorial districts in each state that were now ready and waiting to receive the licenses for the real artisanal refiners in the Niger Delta.
Fyneface also called for the inclusion of Abia, Imo and Ondostates in the next phase of the modular refinery scheme and remove Cross River from the pilot.
“Cross River is not an oil-producing state. I, therefore, recommend without prejudice that it should not be part of the pilot (first) phase of the project as announced by the Federal Government through the Minister of State for Environment, Mrs. Sharon Ikeazor.
“This is because, since the modular refineries are targeted at solving immediate problems associated with ongoing artisanal crude oil refining activities that are not currently taking place in Cross River State, it would be better to keep the state in view and focus on problem states”, the statement reads in part.
He recommended that in this pilot phase, Abia State where artisanal refining is ongoing in some areas should replace Cross River State while steps should be taken without delays to extend modular refineries to Ondo, Imo and Cross River states in the second phase to re-enforce good behaviour, reward the youths and people for not involving themselves in serious pipeline vandalism, crude oil theft, artisanal refining and associated environmental pollution, including soot.