Financial Energy Review
…… insist their HQs be Moved to Niger Delta………
The Governor of River State, Nyesom Wike has alleged that the multinational oil companies are part of the complicity in the insecurity issues in the Niger Delta.
The Governor while receiving the Minister of State for Petroeum Resources, Chief Timpre Sylva in Government house River State, dismissed the claims of the multinational oil companies who are giving excuses of insecurity for not moving their headquarter offices to Niger Delta.
“The multinationals are sometimes to blame because they instigate insecurity by paying militants and turn around to blame it on the people.
“There is no excuse to operate outside our state. The federal government should compel them to relocate their headquarters to the state as the hub of the hydrocarbon industry” the Governor said.
Wike, insisted that the Niger Delta region is safe for companies to conduct their businesses and demanded that international oil companies (IOCs) relocate their headquarters to the state.
Meanwhile, the Minister said that the federal government has plan to build another refinery in River State bringing the total in the state to three
.Sylva also said plans had reached an advanced stage to rehabilitate the existing refineries in the country.
He said the federal government decided to start the rehabilitation programme from the two refineries in Port Harcourt because Rivers State is the headquarters of the hydrocarbon industry.
The minister of state for petroleum resources also commended Wike for being persistent in his quest to get the Refinery Road dualized and promised that the ministry would support the move.
Wike further remphasied that the multinational companies should stop using insecurity to justify their refusal to relocate their operational headquarters to the Niger Delta region.
The governor wondered why insecurity does not prevent the drilling of oil but could be used to deprive the state what is due to it.
“They use insecurity issues to place us in a disadvantaged position and deny us our right.
“There is insecurity in Lagos, Kaduna and Katsina States. Yet, companies do not run away from those states. The railway projects are not stalled too” he said.
He noted that the NNPC has not done anything substantial for the state after many years of operation, adding that the Port Harcourt Refinery has continued to operate below installed capacity, even as the access road has been in a poor state for years.
“I urge you as minister and members of the board of directors to dualize the three kilometres road and change the narrative,” he stated.
Wike noted the patriotism Slyva had demonstrated by attracting federal projects to his state and urged other ministers to emulate him.
He said even if the minister is of the opposition party in Bayelsa State, his sense of patriotism has made him to place the interest of the state above partisan interests.
