The Managing Director of Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, Mr Basil Omiyi, has put the country�s losses due to militant insurgency in the Niger Delta region at $14.4bn.
Omiyi, in a paper he presented at a pre-conference workshop of the National Association of Petroleum Explorationists in Lagos on Tuesday said that the amount was what could have accrued to the country as tax and royalty income since 2006 till date.
He said that SPDC alone was losing 477,000 barrels of oil per day for most part of 2006 and this year to the crisis in the region, which he said, had also forced the SPDC to shut down production in most of the Western Niger Delta.
According to him, apart from production and revenue losses, attacks on flow stations and pipelines had significant environmental consequences as the oil companies had not been able to secure access to clean up oil spills, repair damaged pipelines or even undertake routine maintenance of facilities.
He said that the number of skilled contractors willing to work on projects in the region had reduced considerably due to the volatile situation in the region.
For progress to be witnessed in the region, Omiyi said that there had to be commitment to the implementation of a roadmap that addresses the peculiar needs and expectations of the Niger Delta people such as the Niger Delta Master plan.
��A commitment to a transparent allocation of funds, especially one that ensures that derivation funds benefit oil bearing communities would be helpful as would a faithful implementation of the recently enacted Fiscal Responsibility Act in the states and local government,��he said.
He called on government to facilitate investment promotion by offering a basket of fiscal and other incentives including tax breaks for businesses willing to establish in the region while ensuring that adequate security for lives and property was put in place.
He said, �Small and medium enterprises and micro-businesses are known to be key drivers of economic growth and therefore provide real opportunities for the sustainable development of the Niger Delta.
��Government should therefore give serious consideration to offering special concessionary measures that would encourage the development of the SMEs and micro-business sector in the Niger Delta.��
He advocated a more equitable distribution of the benefits of oil and gas production, by ensuring that oil-producing communities derive some direct benefits including royalties, saying that this would engender a sense of co-ownership.
�The Niger Delta region is undoubtedly complex, and calls for a multidimensional approach for it to be resolved,� he added
Oct182007