Oil Majors, Tanker Owners Defy Presidential Orders

The directives by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo aimed at easing traffic congestion in the Apapa area of Lagos State and ensuring the relocation of oil companies headquarters to the Niger Delta have not been complied with.

Some oil companies have insisted there is no need to move to the region as they already have robust operations there and are only maintaining small head offices in other parts of the country, particularly Lagos. Others have claimed they have headquarters there and are, therefore, not affected by the mandate. The spokesperson for Shell Nigeria, Bamidele Odugbesan, told The Guardian in a telephone interview yesterday that Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) had had its headquarters in the region (Port Harcourt), years before the directive came. According to him, SPDC is offshore and has catchment areas in Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers and recently Imo and Abia States, hence the location of its head office in the Niger Delta. But Odugbesan said the Shell Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCo), which is 120km offshore, off the coast of Nigeria in the Gulf of Guinea, has its office in Lagos. He said: For SNEPCo, the host community is the whole of Nigeria and not limited to the Niger Delta. For instance, distance-wise, SNEPCos Bonga field is closer to Lagos than it is to Port Harcourt. We must categorically state that SNEPCo is not taking a drop of oil from the Niger Delta. SNEPCo will maintain its logistics base where its operations are. It is only when you are operating in the Niger Delta that the issue of relocating there can stand. For SNEPCo, our social investment programmes are done across the country.