FG Will Engage Oil-Producing Communities In Nigeria – Timipre Sylva

The Federal Government has come out to say that it will engage Niger Delta oil-producing host communities on the three per cent operational costs allocated to them in the recently passed Petroleum Industry Bill.

The Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Mr Timipre Sylva recently revealed this in Abuja, and Nigerians have been reacting.

According to him, host communities should focus on effective management of the funds and should avoid a situation where communities won’t be able to access funds paid to them.

He added that he has already extracted the commitment of multinational oil firms to relocate their operational headquarters to the Niger Delta region.

His words, “We are planning, alongside the Minister of Information and Culture, to hold town hall meetings in the host communities after the presidential assent to the PIB.”

“We need to have more stakeholders’ engagement on the three per cent allocated to the communities, people need to know that it is from production costs, not from profit.”

“Today, I can tell you that we are on the last mile of the oil economy. Economies around the world are now discussing renewable fuel.”

“We must understand that, very soon, we may wake up and find out that oil is not as valuable a commodity as we thought.”

“Coal did not finish before the world moved away from it. There are still a lot of coal deposits in Enugu, but if you give some of it to someone, he may not appreciate it because the world has moved away from coal ”