NNPC, Shell, others disburse $360m for Ogoni Clean-up

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its Joint Venture partners made up of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), Total Exploration and Production of Nigeria (TEPNG) and Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC), have disbursed $360million towards the Ogoniland Clean-Up project as recommended by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

NNPC’s Group Managing Director, Mallam Mele Kyari, disclosed this during a presentation to the House of Representatives Committee on Environment and Habitat at the National Assembly Complex in Abuja on Monday.

A statement by the corporation’s Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Mr. Samson Makoji, said the GMD who was represented by the NNPC Chief Operating Officer, Upstream, Mr. Roland Ewubare, stated that funding was not the challenge of the Ogoniland clean-up project.

He stressed that NNPC and its JV partners were up to date in their financial remittance to the clean-up project fund based on the UNEP framework.

“Ogoni clean-up is a massive issue and NNPC and its JV partners are ready to fund the project as prescribed by the UNEP Report. We have so far disbursed $360million out of the $900million recommended.

“The disbursement was based on the standards set which required that we release funds based on the implementation parameters of the clean-up exercise,” Mallam Kyari said.

He noted that though NNPC and its JV partners were not responsible for the implementation of the clean-up, all stakeholders must come together to ensure that the project was carried out successfully.

Mallam Kyari added that the implementation of the clean-up was very important as the exercise would enable the restoration of land, water and the economic well-being of the people in the area.

It would be recalled that the UNEP Report on Ogoniland clean-up had estimated an initial clean-up costs of over $1billion for the first five years of a 25 to 30-year process.