Expert Wants FG To Revoke Frequent Polluters’ Licences

Awell-known environmentalist,Mr Iniruo Wills, has advocated for the revocation and re-awarding of licences only to oil firms that operate in an environmentally sustainable manner.
Wills made the call in a paper he presented at the ongoing 57th conference of the Nigerian Mining and Geosciences Society, in Port Harcourt, Rivers.
The Tide source reports that the paper was titled: ‘Environmental responsibilities for hydrocarbon development in divested Fields.’
Wills, a former Commissioner for Environment in Bayelsa, recommended that the Minister of Petroleum Resources, the Minister of Environment and Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) should jointly administer the licencing policy.
The environmentalist noted that such an approach would be in harmony with the current legal framework in respect of two to three oil blocs, in line with the welcome provisions in section 96 of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
He urged oil companies operating in the Niger Delta region to review their operational processes and take responsibility for their actions that usually lead to discharge of oil and gas.
According to Wills, in one of the oil fields divested in Bayelsa by an International Oil Company (IOC), there was a massive rig explosion that led to displacement of the host communities.
“No Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was conducted in the first place for the project in which the rig explosion occurred.
“This was pre-divestment, but the impacts continue and might last for decades. There has not been satisfactory ecological and social remediation. Now the asset has reportedly been divested.
“Besides the egregious default of not doing an EIA for the base project, what kind of Environmental Effects Statement could have been prepared, if any, to warrant regulatory approval for such a divestment, with the huge environmental baggage outstanding?
“Who will eventually pay for the cost of remediation and compensation in line with best practice?
”The present operator, its predecessor, NNPC as a dominant JV partner with controlling influence, or the regulators who may have failed in their regulatory duty of care to the entire spectrum of stakeholders?
“Are the host state, communities and the environment not left with the short end of the stick? To add to this, for most of November 2021, there was a major gas leak from one of the divested fields and facilities,” he said.
According to him, in another divested field, also in Bayelsa, the new operator claims that it was not allowed to do any environmental due diligence by its predecessor, so it cannot assume liability for the series of unattended pollution before it took over.