Member of the Board of Trustees of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) and President General of KAGOTE, Dr Peter Medee has thrown more light on the funds so far released for the clean-up of Ogoniland in Rivers State by International Oil Companies (IOCs) and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC).
Medee, who gave the explanation in an exclusive interview with The Tide in Port Harcourt, said out of the $200 million expected for the first tranche of the $1billion earmarked for the clean-up project, the NNPC and the IOCs, comprising the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), Total Exploration and Petroleum Company and Nigeria Agip Oil Company (NAOC) have so far released $180 million, while the $20 million expected from local refineries was yet to be accessed.
According to him, $170 million was released recently in addition to the $10million they had earlier released.
Medee said the $20million expected from local refineries, as provided in the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Report, was yet to be accessed, since the board was yet to identify what actually constitutes the local refineries in the first place.
“Let me formally inform you that the IOCs have fulfilled their obligation to be able to release the first tranche of the fund expected for the clean-up of Ogoniland. As I speak to you, we have $170million in the account of the Ogoni Trust Fund. This is because they were expected to pay in $180million, being less 10 per cent of the $200million we were expecting because the 10 per cent is expected to come from local refineries.
So, if you take 10 per cent off $200million, that will be $180million. And they had contributed $10million before now. What was outstanding for this year’s first tranche was $170million. And we presently have $170million in the account of Ogoni Trust Fund with the Standard Chartered Bank of London”, he said.
He further disclosed that the IOCs released $76million, representing 45 per cent of their own contribution in May, 2018, while the NNPC remitted its 55 per cent share on July 31, 2018, stressing that the totality of the fund came from a Joint Venture Partnership operated by SPDC in which the NNPC has 55 per cent share, SPDC, 35 per cent, NAOC, 5 per cent and Total E & P, 5 per cent.
“That is what makes up the 100 per cent of the equity contribution for the Ogoni clean-up”, he intoned.
Elucidating on the $20million balance which is yet to be remitted, the senior lecturer in the Economics Department of the University of Port Harcourt said, “the UNEP Report said 10 per cent will come from local refineries. We are yet to identify those that are expected to bring the money from the local refineries. Like I said, we are yet to know those that will constitute the local refineries.
This is because if you look at the Ogoni area, we have two refineries and we have a petrochemical complex. These might not be local refineries. They all belong to NNPC, which is also paying 55 per cent of the fund. For now, we are yet to identify where that fund will come from. But that is part of the job of the Board of Trustees. We will definitely put in place measures to get the exact source where that 10 per cent is supposed to come from”.
Medee posited, however, that with the $180million in the coffers of the Ogoni Trust Fund, the board was fully prepared to fund the clean-up exercise and appealed to the Federal Government to grant HYPREP some waivers in order to fast-track the process, particularly against the backdrop that “what we are dealing with is an emergency”.
Source: TheTide
