The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its Joint Venture (JV) partners have disbursed $360 million towards the Ogoniland Clean-Up project as recommended by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The JV partners are Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), Total Exploration and Production of Nigeria (TEPNG) and Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC).
Group Managing Director of the NNPC, 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, quoted the GMD, who was represented by the NNPC Chief Operating Officer, Upstream, Mr. Roland Ewubare, as saying that the funding is not the challenge of the Ogoniland clean-up project.
He stressed that the corporation and its JV partners were up to date in their financial remittance to the clean-up project fund based on the UNEP framework. Kyari said: “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.” While noting that though NNPC and its JV partners are not responsible for the implementation of the clean-up, the GMD urged all stakeholders to come together to ensure that the project is carried out successfully.
According to him, the implementation of the clean-up is 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 during a long-term 25 to 30-year reclamation exercise.
