Muhammed Ajah
2 May 2005
About 60,000 barrels of crude oil is lost daily to bunkering and not much has been done to fight the trend to a standstill, the Anglo Dutch Oil giant, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) has said.
The Corporate Affairs Director of Shell, Mr. Motiu Sonmunu who made the revelation at a seminar organized for members of the Rivers state executive council and top brass of Shell in Port Harcourt, said that crude oil bunkering was one of the major problems affecting the company's operations.
Said he "bunkering is a big problem we face in our operations. About 50 to 60 thousand barrels of oil is stolen on daily basis by bunkers. We can no longer work in a vaccum."
He acknowledged that under the democratic government, the federal government had always paid its own contribution in the joint venture arrangement unlike in the past when the military administration refused to meet its own side of the joint venture obligation.
Sommunu, however, pointed out that as a result of the company's new corporate posture of encouraging partnership, there was need to work in synergy with the state government to realize a peaceful environment.
Also speaking, the secretary to the state government, Mr. Moses Aduma called on the company to improve its contributions to the host communities, adding that the divide and rule tactics employment by companies in the state have escalated the problems always talked about rather than solving them.
Aduma said host communities complain of the unwillingness of the company to listen to genuine demands even as he commended the company for contributing to the educational, sports and business development of their areas of operation and urged for more developmental efforts.
He assured the company of government's support and cooperation in carrying out its legitimate operations in the state and tasked on involvement of host communities in beneficial programmes.
The state commissioner for information, Hon. Magnus Abe who spoke on the behaviour of shell towards community projects said that the absence of a defined path between government and shell could cause duplication.
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