OML 30 shutdown: Nigeria loses $20.8m in four days

The shutdown of OML30 flow stations in the Ughelli area of Delta State host communities over breach of agreements may have cost the country a total $20.8 million in four days.

The 112 communities, which are host to eight flow stations in the area, on Friday, November 06 shut down the facility and chased away its workers.

They accused operators of the flow stations, Heritage Energy Operational Services Limited (HEOSL), of “obligations failure and consistent display of gross indifference to the host communities.”

According to a report by the Nigerian Tribune, the flow stations produce not less than 80,000 barrels of crude oil per day, worth about $5.12 million.

The host communities, represented by their OML30 Cluster Management Committee/President Generals had, last Friday evening, invaded and shut down all oil explorations in the flow stations.

Speaking to journalists on Monday at the gate of Afiesere Flow Station, the OML30 host communities’ President Generals, led by their Chairman, Dr Harrison Patrick Oboghor, and Secretary, Mr Ibuje Joseph, said the HEOSL “has displayed gross indifference, and consistent failure of its obligations to host communities in all its ramifications.”

The host communities particularly accused HEOSL of failure to pay the GMOU fund for the last two years, despite the conducive environment in OML30 as well as a mediation by Delta State Government on May 18, 2020.

The host communities also accused HEOSL of a “total stoppage of scholarship award and payment to host communities since 2016,” resolving not to leave the premises “until all their demands are met by HEOSL.”

Their other demands are the refusal by the operators to carry out the agreed staff audit of its Edjeba and Lagos offices; its reneging in providing corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects in OML30 since it became an operator of the asset and the non-inclusion of indigenous personnel into management positions to reflect 70/30 as enshrined in the GMOU, among others.