CSO Threatens Lawsuit, Decry PIA Provisions That Allows IOCs To Criminally Divest

By Jonathan Ugbal

The We The People Center for Social Studies and Development, WTP – CSSD has threatened to sue International Oil Companies, IOCs for not properly carrying out divestment and abandonment of oil infrastructure after destroying the Niger delta environment in the course of their activities.

The Executive Director, Comrade Ken Henshaw stated this during a day multi-stakeholders conference on, “Oil Company Divestment in the Niger Delta” where he said IOCs operations in the past 64 years has led to the destruction of the environment which has forced WTP – CSSD to opt for a suit if no serious action is taken to remediate the area.

He demanded that all divestment moves by oil companies be stopped, and called on the federal government to, “immediately produce a framework and guide for how oil companies disengage from areas where they have operated.”

In a similar vein, the Executive Director of Policy Alert, Comrade Tijah-Bolton Akpan during his presentation lamented that the Petroleum Industry Act, PIA 2021 offered IOCs a loophole to divest offshore in a shady manner that will not benefit Nigerians.

Akpan said the PIA gives the IOCs the right to divest criminally without tidying up and investing in the communities that have been hosting them over the years. He lamented that the PIA did not provide the needed bridge between the current era of dependence on fossil fuels, and connecting it with a future that is going to see low investments in dirty carbon forms of energy.

“What we saw in the PIA was a huge disappointment. We did not see any provision in the PIA that takes some of the money from the oil and gas currently and invests it in a fund to clean up the environment or to invest in cleaner, renewable energy.

“Secondly, the PIA gives a very lean provision for decommissioning and abandonment. And that is the only way we can tidy up the messed-up environment of the Niger Delta that these IOCs have created over the years. Without a strong decommissioning and abandonment provision in the PIA, then you are actually excusing the IOCs from their legacy damages to the communities and the environment.

“The PIA should have created a loss and damage fund, just the same way climate-vulnerable communities across the world have been calling during COP27 for loss and damage. What loss and damage can be greater than the pollution in the Niger Delta environment over the last 65 years,” Akpan said.