News
PIB Excludes SAO Tome Oil
deals-Group
Public accountability
group, Niger Delta Budget Monitoring Group (NDEBUMOG) says oil
extraction in the Nigeria-Sao Tome and Principe Joint
Development Zone is not covered in the much anticipated
Petroleum Industries Bill (PIB).
Executive Director of
the group, George-Hill Anthony, said in an on-line statement on
Wednesday that the zone was excluded in PIB because it is an
autonomous entity within an enclave of Nigeria and Sao Tome and
Principe.
NDEBUMOG is therefore,
calling for a creation of a Joint Nigeria-Sao Tome Extractive
Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) Commission. ''It is
our belief that such a commission would bring about disclosure
on acreages, dividend, liabilities among others to ordinary
citizens of both countries'', the group said.
The group said the
commission being advocated for, will make information about
happenings in the joint development zone available for
Nigerians. According to NDEBUMOG, the yardstick being used by
the Joint Development Authority (JDA) at deciding the zone's
corporate social responsibility, especially as it affects
scholarship to Nigerians ''is not measurable by the civil
society''.
They argued that since
information about oil blocks among other issues within the zone
are not also available, ''it calls to question how ordinary
Nigerians would be able to know what their stakes are,
concerning the millions of US dollars, which have been committed
by our government for prospecting within the zone''.
Sao Tome and Principe is
an Exclusive Economic Zone, a massive area that encompasses
approximately 160,000 square kilometres. It is a frontier region
that sits South of the Niger Delta, and West of Gabon salt
basin, retaining similarities with each of those prolific
hydrocarbon regions.
According to the
report, Sao Tome and Principe are islands in a North-East to
South-West trending chain of island extending offshore from
Cameroon into Eastern Gulf of Guinea. Sao Tome and Principe are
located in between prolific hydrocarbon regions, lying
approximately 200 kilometres South of Nigeria and directly west
of territorial waters of Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.
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