Sopuruchi Onwuka — Government agencies and private players in the Nigerian upstream oil industry have floated a committee for rehabilitating and training militants who recently accepted the government's amnesty.

This is even as Shell said it was pursuing a parallel program to provide rehabilitation and reformation of the militants which had attacked it in the past to enable them lose taste for commercial violence and embrace legitimate endeavours.

The moves might be part of the amnesty program of the government which is estimated to cost the industry whopping N10.14 billion in funding skills acquisition, lessons in citizenship and starter packs to enable the repentant gunmen lead clean life when they leave the rehabilitation camps.

The move is targeted at ensuring that the youths who have volunteered out of violent attacks on the oil industry as a source of livelihood are trained to pursue legitimate enterprises in other fields of endeavour.

The committee headed by the Presidential Adviser on Petroleum matters, Dr. Emmanuel Egbogah, is mandated to work out the best ways to sustain the peace in the Niger Delta for safe and uninterrupted operation of the oil industry.

Group spokesman of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Levi Ajuonuma, stated yesterday that the committee would monitor the post-amnesty program.

Minister of Petroleum Resources, Dr. Rilwanu Lukman, is quoted in the statement directing the committee to ensure that appropriate strategies were deployed against the likely resumption of violence in the region.

"I don't need to overemphasize what we have lost as a government and as operators in the Niger Delta during the dark days of militancy," Dr. Lukman, said, adding: "But we must look ahead and take concrete steps to avoid a recurrence of the ugly past."

Group Managing Director of NNPC, Dr. Mohammed Sanusi Barkindo, said the corporation would join forces with the IOC's and other key operators in the petroleum industry to develop the Niger Delta region.

"the challenge for us today is to identify concrete ways and means within our mandate to sustain and promote the overall objective of Mr. President. We must look into the area of capacity limitation of the youths so as to assist them in acquiring the relevant skills that will make them marketable in the industry," Barkindo said.

Representatives of Exxon/Mobil, Addax Petroleum, Total, OandO and ENI-ConnocoPhilips also expressed the support of their respective firms in bringing back peace to the Niger Delta.

The consensus was that to achieve meaningful peace and progress in the region, attention must be paid to opening up the Delta in such a way that the youths will be empowered to build and maximize their capacity.

In his remarks, the chairman of the newly constituted committee, Dr Egbogah promised to ensure that everything is done to achieve the cardinal objectives of the federal government's post amnesty plan. Members of the committee were drawn from the NNPC, IOC's and indigenous oil companies.

The amnesty, which expired on October 4, saw about 15,000 militants surrendering their arms to government troops, a situation that has allowed Nigeria to boost oil production.

The Managing Director of Shell Petroleum Development Company, Mutiu Sumonu, said there was an urgent need for a post-amnesty consolidation strategy.

"Once proper reorientation is achieved we can now move to the next stage, which is integration. But in all these we must work as a group by galvanizing our efforts to achieve greater impact," Sumonu said.

Movement for Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND), the main militant group in the oil-rich Delta region, last week said it had been encouraged by the government's "readiness to engage" in serious talks and announced a new indefinite ceasefire.

The militant group, which says it is fighting for a fairer share of the region's wealth, had been attacking oil installations and oil workers since January 2006.

Although MEND has declared an indefinite ceasefire, resentment is likely to remain over the division of oil revenues.

Militants have demanded up to a 20 percent share of the country's revenues, but at the beginning of October the Niger Delta region was getting only 13 percent. However proposals are under consideration for equity interest for oil producing communities in the emerging incorporated joint ventures.

Meanwhile Shell said it is driving a parallel program to help rehabilitate and reorientate the former gunmen who had attacked the company's interests in the Niger Delta for decades, stealing from its crude pipelines, sabotaging its facilities, and decimating its production and output to the market.

The Royal Dutch oil giant said it became the first foreign oil firm to offer help to the ex-militants.

Shell announced it would provide training and financial assistance to some former militants who accepted the government's amnesty.

It was not clear how much money Shell will make available, but sources hint that government agencies have only received N960 million ($6.5 million) out of the N10.14 billion earmarked by the National Assembly for the entire amnesty program.

Shell, whose joint venture with state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) accounts for more than 40 percent of Nigeria's total production, is the first foreign oil firm to publicly offer assistance.

Sources also said that Shell, which is the biggest foreign energy company operating in Nigeria, will use its small and medium enterprise fund to assist the former rebels in setting up businesses.

The European Union has also indicated it would consider providing financial aid if Nigeria asked.