By Dennis Udoma, Senior Correspondent, Uyo
The Federal Government has said, about six modular refineries are set to commence operations in the country soon.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Niger-Delta, Mr Edobor Iyamu disclosed this at a Dialogue on Critically Appraising Mechanisms Used to Transfer Benefits of Resource Extraction to the Niger-Delta region in Uyo yesterday (Monday).
He said that, the establishment of those refineries were part of deliberate efforts by President Muhammad Buhari’s government to grow local content in the region.
Mr Iyamu said that, in a bid to ensure that Niger Delta Region benefit from the opportunities that accrue from oil exploration, the federal government had kept its promise by ensuring that, the refineries were not only given licenses but, also encouraged to begin production.
He said further that, federal government has put conducive environment for investors to open modular refineries in the country adding that, government has approved zero duties to investors on modular refinery equipment.
According to Iyamu, “let us not forget that, in previous administration, 35 modular licenses were issued and nobody did anything about it.
“The licenses were issued and people just put the license in their suitcases, why because they were benefiting from the era of petroleum subsidy.
“I was going to say also that because of the policy of this government which is zero duties, it has encouraged a lot of investors into the space.
‘’So, today as I said we have six modular refineries, and I have been there myself not talking about things I read or saw from newspapers.
“I went there physically to inspect the modular refineries’’.
He listed some of the policies by the federal government to encourage local content in the oil and gas sector to include strengthening the local content act.
Also, a member of the Nigeria Extractive Industries and Transparent Initiative Expert Advisory Panel, Dr Ukoha Ukiwo said that, various framework and mechanisms to bring benefits to the region could not succeed if trust was not built between the government, oil companies and the communities.
Ukiwo said that, harmony could be created in the region and benefits derived, if opportunities were created for people of the area to participate in the process of production to help improve the economy of the communities.
Stakeholders Democratic Network represented by Dr Chris Onosode, appealed to the federal government and oil companies to work towards minimising the negative impacts of oil exploration in the region.
Meanwhile, the Programme Co-ordinator of the Nigeria Natural Resources Charter, Miss Tengi George-Ikoli has advised people of the oil rich Niger-Delta region to hold government accountable ‘‘for how the oil and gas resources are managed’’ to ensure that communities enjoy benefits from their resources.
