PIA: N300bn paid to host communities – FG
The federal government has urged the host communities to leverage on 3% Host Communities Development Trusts (HCDTs) to boost oil and gas production in the country as about N300 billion has so far been paid to about 140 HCDTs registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC). The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator […]
heineken lokpobiri
The federal government has urged the host communities to leverage on 3% Host Communities Development Trusts (HCDTs) to boost oil and gas production in the country as about N300 billion has so far been paid to about 140 HCDTs registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, disclosed this in Yenagoa , Bayelsa State, over the weekend during a one-day seminar organised by First E&P, a leading indigenous exploration and production company and KEFFESO Host Community Development Trust (KHCDT), with support from the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB).
He also urged them to chart a pathway to sustainable growth and prosperity in oil and gas host communities and peaceful operations of oil and gas companies.
He said the forum provided a platform to share experiences, identify and deliberate on common challenges and appropriate solutions that would lead to increased crude oil production and sustainable development in the communities as envisaged under the PIA.
Lokpobiri recalled successive stages in legislative work at the National Assembly to produce the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), and how its eventual enactment in 2021 has brought remarkable development to host communities as well as stability to the oil and gas sector.
He stated that three per cent of the annual operating expenditure of oil-prospecting companies in the upstream subsector is allocated by the PIA to oil-producing areas through Host Communities Development Trusts (HCDTs) for their own development needs.
He said while the three per cent allocation may not be enough to address the developmental needs of the communities, it is always good to start from somewhere.
Also speaking, the Executive Secretary of the NCDMB, Engr Felix Omatsola Ogbe, represented by the Director of Legal Services, Naboth Onyesoh, Esq said the advent of the PIA, which has provided “succinct legislative provisions to comprehensively address the issue of how to integrate the interests of the host communities into the mainstream of the oil and gas industry,” has made a lot of improvement to such areas.
He assured that the NCDMB remains “committed to leveraging the provisions of the NOGICD Act, 2010, as well as the Community Content Guideline to ensure sustainable community engagement and play the part vested in the board to ensure that community content is recognised in the entire oil and gas value chain.”