Seven communities in the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) estuary area of Bayelsa have insisted on maintaining their autonomy in development matters, resisting plans by SPDC to merge them with five other communities in the Host Community Development Trust (HCDT).
The Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021 requires oil companies to allocate three per cent of their operational expenses for community development, overseen by HCDTs.
Leaders of the communities, including Bisangbene, Amatu I, Amatu II, Letugbene, Orobiri, Ogbintu, and Azamabiri, have expressed their willingness to shut down SPDC operations if their demand for autonomy is disregarded.
Timothy Geregere, chairman of the Bisangbene community, and Ebis Rames, his counterpart in the Amatu II community, emphasised that they do not wish to be grouped with other communities, clarifying their position in numerous letters to the company.
They insist that they want to be treated separately in the EA oil field and have already conveyed this desire to SPDC.
According to Mr Geregere, "The separation is necessary because we are about 12 communities in the EA, and the 12 Communities cannot live together... If there is no separation in the PIA, there will be no operation in the EA field. For the past years, we have been making peace, giving them an enabling environment to operate, and we have already built peace to almost 89 per cent, but they are the ones now causing problems."
The communities are also facing issues with the community content plan policy, which SPDC has not signed despite community endorsement. They are also awaiting the implementation of this policy and have requested that the remaining part of the Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMoU) be paid to the communities.
Additionally, the communities expressed dissatisfaction with SPDC's failure to fulfil its promises to employ local residents and pay them a peace bonus for maintaining peace in the area. Bola Essien-Nelson, SPDC's spokeswoman, has not yet responded to requests for comment on the situation.