By Adedapo Adesanya
Amnesty International has hailed the decision of the Nigerian government to reject the planned sale of on-shore assets of the Shell Petroleum Development Company to the Renaissance consortium.
Earlier this week, the federal government, through the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), rejected the proposed $1.3 billion sale of Shell’s onshore oilfields to the Renaissance Group, a consortium of five companies comprising four exploration and production companies based in Nigeria and an international energy group, Petrolin.
This newspaper cited that the reason for this was that the regulators were not convinced by the consortium’s ability to manage the assets.
Speaking with journalists in Port Harcourt, the Head of Business and Human Rights of Amnesty International, Mr Mark Dumett, said any multinational oil company seeking to divest from the Niger Delta must account for decades of human rights abuses related to oil spills which have polluted the environment of the region.
Shell announced its decision to sell its Nigerian onshore subsidiary – the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) to Renaissance.
The completion of the $1.3 billion transaction was, however, subject to approvals by the Federal Government of Nigeria and other conditions.
In April, the federal government through the NUPRC developed a divestment framework to guide the assessment of applications for ministerial consent to SPDC. The framework, which consists of seven cardinal pillars, would also guide other similar interventions in the country.
Mr Dumett said that the federal government must insist on the protection of human rights, by holding Shell to accept responsibility for oil spills and commit to financing cleanup efforts in the Niger Delta.
He added that while Shell will not relent in pushing for the proposed sale, the Nigerian Government must not allow Shell to evade remediation of the Niger Delta environment, its contaminated drinking water and poisoned agricultural land.