PIB: MOSOP demands $2 per barrel sold

The Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People has proposed that instead of the 10 per cent net profit of oil companies stipulated in the Petroleum Industry Bill, $2 (N319) should be paid into the Petroleum Host Community Fund for every Niger Delta crude oil sold.
The group stated this during the presentation of a PIB draft report titled: PIB Resource Handbook, and community sensitisation workshop in Rivers State, which was organised by Spaces for Change, a civil society group.
MOSOP, which was one of the groups at the workshop, noted that technical and procedural uncertainties associated with the accurate determination of profit calculations might affect contribution rates to the fund, if the 10 per cent of net profit contributions option was adopted.
The PHC Fund, meant for the development of economic and social infrastructure in the Niger Delta, has been one of the contentious provision of the PIB, which is still being debated at the National Assembly.
The representatives of the host communities also demanded that the criteria for the location of community development programmes should be clearly spelt out before the initiating of such projects.
The communiqué released at the end of the workshops and made available to our correspondent on Friday, stated, “As with all other funds created under the PIB such as the Petroleum Equalisation Fund and the Petroleum Trust Development Fund with a well-defined administrative framework, creating a governance structure for the PHC Fund should not be left in the hands of the Petroleum Minister alone as proposed under Section 118 (6) of the PIB.
“The National Assembly is urged to consider the creation of a community-based fund management structure, called the Community Development Board, to manage the PHC Fund. The proposed board will serve as an independent body, without prescriptive interference from government agencies, state governors and traditional institutions, whose members are appointed for a fixed tenure by different interest groups – women, youth, traditional rulers, elders’ council — within oil producing communities.”
It added that as it is practised in Alaska, USA, Norway and other oil-rich countries, the ownership and control of mineral resources should be vested in communities and states in which they are found.
Other changes the oil communities, recommended in the PIB included the recognition of the National Oil Spill Detection and Remediation, as the agency responsible for cleaning up of oil spills and environmental remediation.