The Federal Government may have decided to hand over the oil and gas assets of the Shell Petroleum Development Company , SPDC, to a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.

It is not clear when government reached a definite agreement on the transfer, but the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, announced government’s intension to transfer the operatorship of oil and gas assets in Ogoni land to a new operator, to calm the restiveness in the area, which made Shell to abandon its operations in the region over 15 years ago.

But indications to government’s decision came when the Group Managing Director, of the Corporation, Mr. Austen Oniwon, told a former GMD of the NNPC, Mr. Funsho Kupolukun, who visited him in Abuja that the Ogoni assets will be taken over its upstream subsidiary, the Nigeria Petroleum Development Company, NPDC.

Oniwon said this was in line with the ongoing refocusing of the company into a commercial entity with a view to transforming it from a marginal field operator to a major oil and producer, adding that this will also increase Federal Government’s take in the petroleum industry.

“The management of the NNPC has increased the portfolio of the NPDC by extending its operations to Ogoni land and other fields. This is to enable the NPDC compete for some of the equity of Shell Petroleum Development Company as it tries to divest. The NPDC will continue to play a central role as the NNPC prepares to become profit oriented,” Oniwon said.

Shell could not comment on the process of the asset transfer, but the Anglo_Dutch company raised no objections when late Yar’Adua made the announcement after a reconciliation committee headed by Father Hassan Mathew Kuka, about two years ago.

Many suspected it was a big relief for Shell who had lost so much material and human resources as a result of crises in Ogoni land.
Oniwon noted that the NNPC was undergoing a transformation that would reposition it into a profit_driven organisation, adding that the only way to achieve this is to increase the NPDC’s portfolio, which has since recorded some commendable progress.