Oil and gas companies in Nigeria should relocate to their various operational bases in the host communities to ensure smooth operations.
The senate disclosed this on Tuesday when it mandated its committees on Petroleum Resources Upstream, Downstream Petroleum Sector and Gas to liaise with the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and the Presidential Implementation Committee on the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) to facilitate the oil coys quick relocation.
The lawmakers reached the resolution after it considered a motion on the “Urgent need to encourage all Multinational and Nigerian Oil and Gas Companies to relocate to their Operational Bases.”
The motion was sponsored by Senator Albert Bassey Akpan (PDP, Akwa Ibom North East) and co-sponsored by 23 other senators.
Senator Biobarakuma Degi-Eremienyo (Bayelsa East) said the agitations and problems within the oil and gas producing communities was as a result of their inability to easily access the management of the multinational companies to file complaints.
“I believe that if this motion is passed and implemented, it will go a long way to assuage the yearnings and apprehension of the people within these host communities.
“Mr. President, as a matter of fact, the cause of this situation is that the government of these areas are not even benefitting from the revenue, that is payment of tax, within the localities that they are exploiting this oil and gas, because the workers will claim that they are not resident in these areas.
“The payee is not accruable to the state government. These are some of the things the people suffer on account of locating the headquarters away from the source of the raw materials”, he said.
The lawmaker stressed that the full benefits of the Petroleum Industry Act would not accrue to the Federal Government if effort isn’t made to have the multinational companies relocate to the host communities where oil and gas is produced.
