Rivers Gov. Chibuike Amaechi has urged the NNPC to direct the oil multinational companies in the country to locate their headquarters in their areas of operation.

Receiving the Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mr Mohammed Barkindo and his Power and Gas team in Port Harcourt, Amechi also asked the NNPC to relocate its corporate head office to Port Harcourt or anywhere within the Niger Delta.

Amaechi said it was not fair for the companies to site their zonal offices or operational bases in Port Harcourt or elsewhere while their headquarters remained in Abuja or Lagos.

He said that if the local people were seriously engaged, even at the lower levels of operation in the oil companies or oil-related activities because of their location in the Niger Delta, they would have little or no time for mischief, including militancy or kidnapping.

"We would continue to encourage the NNPC to do us a favour. All other agencies of NNPC or the oil companies can make their decisions in Abuja or Lagos but let them operate from where the oil is produced, he said.

"Such movement could create job opportunities and reduce crime. Put in place an economic base for the area and the people to catalyse some economic growth".

According to him, about 60 per cent of exportable gas is produced in Rivers State alone.

"The people of Niger Delta would be glad if the headquarters of the oil companies are moved to the area. Oil business is done between the Niger Delta and Nigeria and not in the zones or bases," he said.

"NNPC should not allow the oil companies in the region to move their headquarters away from here and only run their operational bases in the Niger Delta," Amaechi said.

He said the Federal Government's directive relocating the Nigerian Ports Authority to Lagos was based on both administrative and operational efficiency, which could be replicated in the petroleum industry.

Amechi commended President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua for the amnesty programme and the return of peace to the Niger Delta as well as the resolve of the Federal Government to hasten the provision of critical infrastructure to the area.

(NAN)