Page 9 - AfrOil Week 07 2020

AfrOil POLICY AfrOil
The clean-up may cost $1bn (Photo: The Habari Network)
JV partners disburse $360mn for Ogoniland clean-up project
NIGERIA
NIGERIA’S national oil company (NOC) and three major international oil companies (IOCs) have released $360mn in funding for large-scale environmental clean-up work in Ogoniland.
Mele Kyari, the group managing director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC), informed members of the House of Represent- atives earlier this week that his company had established a joint venture with a liates of Total (France), Eni (Italy) and Royal Dutch Shell (UK/ Netherlands) for the clean-up project. In a mes- sage presented to legislators by Roland Ewubare, NNPC’s chief operating o cer, Kyari said the partners were committed to moving forward with the initiative and would follow the recom- mendations made by the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP).
e NNPC chief emphasised that this com- mitment extended to the nancial aspects of the clean-up. All four partners are ready to make funding available and have met their pledges on schedule, he said.
“[ e] Ogoni clean-up is a massive issue, and
NNPC and its JV partners are ready to fund the project as prescribed by the UNEP Report,” he said. “We have so far disbursed $360mn out of the $900mn recommended. e disbursement was based on the standards set, which required that we release funds based on the implementa- tion parameters of the clean-up exercise.”
NNPC, Total Exploration & Production of Nigeria (TEPNG), Shell Petroleum Devel- opment Co. (SPDC) and Nigeria Agip Oil Co. (NAOC) will not carry out the environmental initiative directly, Kyari noted. He stressed, though, that the partners would be responsible for ensuring that the work succeeded.
Additionally, he stressed that NNPC saw the clean-up project as a high priority. e initiative will help restore land and water resources and promote economic development, he said.
UNEP has said that Nigeria may need to spend $1bn to address the consequences of pol- lution related to a major oil spill in Ogoniland in 2008. It has also estimated that the clean-up may take 25-30 years. ™
PROJECTS & COMPANIES
Sound Energy moots micro-LNG project
MOROCCO UK-LISTED Sound Energy has said it hopes to pursue a small-scale LNG project at the Ten-
drara licence area in eastern Morocco.
In a statement dated February 17, the company said that it was seeking to revise the
full-field development plan for Tendrara in order to make the micro-LNG project its rst priority.
Doingsowillhelpgenerateearlycash ows from the block, it said.
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