Petroleum Industry Act: Ogun begins identification of littoral communities

Laide Raheem, Abeokuta

Ogun State Government has begun the process of the determination of coast line communities along the Gulf of Guinea for the operationalization of the Littoral Host Community Development Trust (HCDT) done in conjunction with the National Boundary Commission.

This exercise is in pursuance of the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act no.6 of 2021, which stipulates that host communities affected by the petroleum operations will be entitled to 3% of upstream companies actual annual operating expenditure of the preceding financial year, in deriving direct social and economic benefits from Petroleum operations within their communities.

The exercise which is a fall-out of an advocacy visit earlier made by The Director General, National Boundary Commission, Adamu Adaji to the Office of the Deputy Governor and Chairman of Ogun State Boundary Committee, Noimot Salako-Oyedele, on the need to sensitize the state on the all-important assignment for adequate representation of the identified communities in the Host Communities Development Trust.

According, the Acting Surveyor General of the State, who led the Ogun State team on the exercise, the mandate given to the joint field team was to verify and capture the Littoral Communities along the Gulf of Guinea that are within 500metres buffer from the shore line to satisfy the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) for gazzete purposes.

He added that the exercise which was carried out at Ode-Omi in the Ogun Waterside Local Government area of the State was done by a joint field team comprising members from the Federal Government, National Boundary Commission, Office of the Surveyor-General of the Federation, Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission and the Ogun State Boundary Commission.

Reacting to the Exercise on behalf of concerned communities totalling 60 in all, the Lenuwa of Ode-Omi, Oba Folailu Adekunle Hassan, appreciated the State and Federal government for the initiative, promising the support of his community towards the overall success of the exercise.