By Pere Sam

The story about OML46, otherwise called Atala Oil Field has been like a voice in the wilderness crying for justice; as the people of Bayelsa State are constrained to cry out loud and clear, the pains of injustice being perpetrated against them. Just like the reggae maestro, Peter Tosh, said in one of his songs, “Equal Right and Justice,” if everyone is talking about peace, but no one is talking about justice, it is just a delusion, as peace cannot be guaranteed without justice. In the case of oil producing communities in Niger Delta, the common expectation is for peace to reign in the area to exploit the natural endowment; but it seems no one cares if they have been treated justly.

For Bayelsa State, where crude oil was first discovered in commercial quantity,   the discovery of oil has brought more pains, maginalisation and grotesque neglect than real benefits to the communities. This is the root cause of the waves of violent agitations. Any one who fails to learn from history is certainly preparing to fail in the art of statecraft. It is a fact of history that the core reason that inspired the first armed insurrection against the Federal Government was the marginalization and neglect of oil producing people of the Niger Delta.

One had thought the Federal Government had learnt some lessons from the Isaac Boro revolution, it is, however, evident that it has not learnt any lessons from that episode and that is why   more agitations by militant youths of have continued to thrive. It was the late President Musa   Yar Adua who tried to nip it in the bud by initiating the Amnesty Programme which was designed to address some of the critical issues of agitation in the Niger Delta.

The issue of OML46- Atala Oilfield, is threatening to cause disaffection in the area. It was among the Marginal Oilfields put up for bid by former President   Olusegun Obasanjo along with OML56 and OML14 respectively. The intention of Obasanjo was that government should begin to wear human face in addressing the genuine demands of oil producing communities in the interest of fairness, peace and justice for the overall peaceful co-existence of people in the country.

Apart from creating the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, the allocation of oil bloc like that of OML46 was another direct measure to allow oil producing states to be active players in the oil and gas sector to assuage their years of agitations and shore up   the revenue profile of oil producing states, so that they would not always go cap in hand to the centre in tackling their development challenges. 

It was against this background that the former governor of Bayelsa State, Chief D.S.P Alamieyeseigha deemed it necessary to incorporate the Bayelsa Oil Company Limited to bid for OML46 and got it.  

Sadly, the great expectations of Bayelsans were dashed when NUPRC (Former DPR) announced on April 6, 2020, the revocation of the OML46 – Atala marginal oil field, on the ground that Bayelsa Oil Company Limited, BOCL, JV had failed to turn the assets around for the nation to derive maximum value from the resources by accusing Atala Oil of non-production. 

According to industry sources, this decision seemed to have been taken without consideration for the fact that the OML46-Atala oilfield had been developed, crude oil produced and sold from the same field at different stages of test crude production. Royalties on crude oil sold from the field had been paid to the Federal Government several times and even up-to-date before the revocation, a fact which can be verified at the Central Bank with receipts to that effect.

Interestingly, President Muhammadu Buhari had earlier instructed and approved that marginal fields including OML46 be re-awarded on discretionary basis to qualified and competent companies with consideration given to previous operators of the respective fields, subject to the demonstration of technical and financial capacity and payment of applicable good and valuable consideration (GVC). Painfully, out of the ten fields Mr. President directed to reverse their revocation, only Atala oilfield belonging to the Bayelsa State Government was not complied with.

This is despite the fact that a leader of the state, who is also a former governor of the state, Chief Timipre Sylva, is the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and ought to know what happened.

The oil field was handed over to Halkin E & P Nigeria Limited in 2020, a company which was incorporated only in 2019. The question is, does the company have the financial and technical capacity to explore the oil field?  

Curiously, same day the Minister received the letter proposing to revoke the Atala oilfield license and a clear mission to re-award it to HALKIN E&P, the same day it was approved with the speed of light. Another nagging question is, why did Sylva not make Atala viable or productive while he served as governor of the state?.  

After all the current governor of the state, Senator Douye Diri has demonstrated the political will to turn around the Atala oilfield through the BOCL by committing huge resources into it with a 51 percent equity share. This singular act by the governor is enough for Sylva to join hands with his state governor to protect the state asset which is capable of generating over 2,000 jobs and take off some restive youths from the streets. It was based on Diri’s commitment to make Atala oilfield work which resulted in Mr. President finally approving and directing the immediate “reinstatement of the revoked licences on discretionary basis to qualified companies with consideration given to the previous operators of the respective fields”. 

*Pere, a journalist and advocate for good governance, is based in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.