By UDO IBUOT

WHEN the Federal Government ordered the licensing of one of the nation’s eight oil and gas free zones at Ikot Abasi in Akwa Ibom State on July 28, 2020, it was as if the citizens were aroused from their non-rapid eye movement sleep. It was like a reenactment of the intense feeling of well-being and happiness.

This licensing marked the expected renaissance of industrial and commercial activities in the Okpo Ebot territory, corrupted to Opobo by European traders in the pre-colonial era. The old Opobo Division (renamed Ikot Abasi local government after the 1976 boundary adjustment that consigned a sizeable chunk of the council area to Rivers State) ranked higher than several other towns in the old Calabar province in commercial and industrial activities.

The Liberty Oil and Gas Free Zone, as constituted at Ikot Abasi, spreads across six local governments in Akwa Ibom State, namely: Ikot Abasi, Mkpatenin, Oruk Anam, Eastern Obolo, Oniong Nnung Ndem Awa, ONNA, and Ibeno. It occupies a physical space that measures 50,215 hectares, with the Qua Iboe export hub at Ibeno serving as a sub-zone of the export free zone. The export free zone took off in May 2021 with the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the government of Akwa Ibom State and the Oil and Gas Free Zone Authority, OGFZA. Umana Umana, managing director of OGFZA at the time, who endorsed the MOU on behalf of the Federal Government agency, noted that, so far, 12 firms had come into the project with investment commitments valued at more than $6 billion.

Considered the largest oil and gas free zone in West Africa by landmass, the Liberty Oil and Gas Free Zone is promoted by the Akwa Ibom State government, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, NNPC, Limited, and private sector investors such as Sterling Petrochemicals and Fertilizer Company and the Black Rhino Group. It is expected that when fully operational, it will feature a petroleum and energy district, an NNPC logistics centre, a business and industrial district, an agro-allied industrial district, and a heavy industry district.

Two legacy projects that were co-opted into the oil and gas-free zone are the moribund Aluminium Smelter Company, ALSCON, which has witnessed an eternal litigation by BFIG group, and the 115 MW Ibom Power Plant, both located at Ikot Abasi. The export hub at the Ibeno axis is expected to serve as the gas gathering axis for West Africa, with planned investments there, including a 567 MW gas-fired power plant, a gas flare elimination project, and a natural and LNG export terminal, among others.

However, desirable as the Liberty Oil and Gas Free Zone might have been, it has become an albatross because of the nonchalance of its promoters towards the conduct of an environmental and social impact assessment on the areas covered by the free zone’s operations. The promoters appear to be interested only in accumulating hundreds of hectares of citizens’ farmlands for the projects but do not seem to bother about the sustainable existence of these citizens. Environmental Impact Assessment, EIA, is usually undertaken to identify likely positive and negative environmental impacts associated with any proposed development project in the host communities and to recommend appropriate mitigation measures. It usually consists of environmental, social, and consultation elements that are used in the planning and decision making programmes to reduce, avoid, or even mitigate impacts on the environment that any project may have. In the instance of high-impact industries like oil and gas, studies have found that there are several negative short- and long term effects on residents of oil and gas host communities.

Fertiliser plants have chemical potentials with harmful effects not only on waterways and air pollution, they also have capacity to introduce chemical imbalances in plants and mineral shortages in soil systems. Oil and gas production have devastating effects on humans and the environment, with pollution being its most dangerous consequence. In virtually all aspects of oil and gas production, from exploration to refining, pollution is evident, with gas emissions, solid waste, and aerosols generated during drilling and production being responsible for a substantial part of the pollution. Environmental effects of oil and gas also include intensification of the greenhouse effect, acid rain, contamination of the groundwater, and the loss of biodiversity and destruction of unique ecosystems, among others.

Section 2(2) of the Environmental Impact Assessment Act No. 86 of 1992 states that “where the extent, nature, or location of a proposed project or activity is such that it is likely to significantly affect the environment, its environmental impact assessment shall be undertaken in accordance with the provisions of this Act. ” Firms undertaking industrial processes such as chemical, petrochemical, non-ferrous primary smelting, aluminum, copper, and others with capacity to produce up to 50 metric tonnes of product per day and above, as well as non-metallic products are required by law to embark on an environmental impact assessment. 

Equally, those that are involved in petroleum products, including oil and gas field development, construction of off-shore pipelines exceeding 50 kilometres in length; construction of oil and gas separation, processing, handling, and storage facilities, and construction of oil refineries, are also mandated by Section 12 of the Act to undertake an environmental impact assessment before the commencement of operations.

It is disquieting that despite the clamour by citizens of the communities at the heart of the free zone: Ikot Akpan Udo, Ikot Ikwot, Nda Uko, Ikot Okwo, and other villages in Ukpum Ete Clan of Ikot Abasi local government area; Sterling Global Petrochemical and Fertilizer Company, as well as the Ibom Developers FZE partners, have ignored the legal requirement for environmental impact assessment on the environment of these communities. These organisations cannot pretend that there will be no negative effects on the environment from their oil and gas operations, or even from other dangerous chemicals generated from their fertiliser plant. 

The Akwa Ibom State government should equally not sacrifice the health of its citizens and their environment on the altar of assumed good business investment opportunities. 

Before the damage becomes irreparable, the government must move in to compel these oil and gas companies to undertake an environmental impact assessment and provide for mitigation of the dangers at hand. Given the company’s initial collaboration with some so-called land donors to destroy farmlands in the core host community at Ikot Akpan Udo under the guise of burrow-pit development, it is apparent that it cannot be trusted to independently embark on an environmental impact assessment in its area of operation. This is why the state government must wield the stick, and the time to do so is now. 

A stitch in time, they say, saves nine.

*Dr. Ibuot, a journalist, wrote from Lagos.