http://www.strategiy.com/oilenergynew.asp?id=20060726104631
http://www.vanguardngr.com/articles/2002/southwest/sw125072006.html


The Olokola LNG project is one that has drawn interests within and outside the country. At completion, it's expected to be the biggest LNG plant in Africa. I read in the dailies that the plan is to pipe gas from some Niger Delta oil/gas fields to feed this plant which will be sited in a boundary town between Ogun and Ondo States - Olokola.

The other day, I read on the Guardian that Chevron has built an Oil School in Otta Ogun State Ogun State to cater for the people who will be working at the Olokola LNG site. So what's my beef with all these you'll ask?

1. Well, my people, I just want to ask (if you're familiar with the Nigerian Map) if it's economically justifiable to construct pipelines some hundreds of kilometres long across land and sea, to gather gas and feed a gigantic plant located somewhere outside the place where the raw materials for the plant is.

2. The location of this plant generated so much heat between Delta and Ondo states throughout last year. Delta claims the plant was originally meant to be sited in Escravos, Delta state, but was moved at the last minute by OBJ and his fellow Ogun and Ondo brothers to Olokola. Is this fair to the Niger Delta people? Is this how they plan to pacify the anger, frustration and the feelings of rape and neglect on the part of the Niger Delta people?

Ogun and Ondo states government states that getting the plant on their land is their own way of jumpstarting their economy.  I believe they can jumpstart their economy by promoting and investing in what's in abundance in their states (Cocoa, Kolanuts, Tarsands etc etc) rather than chanelling the resources of other states to their domain. This smacks of injustice at it's peak and I can only hope and pray that the project will not see the light of the day.

Well the militants of the niger delta have sworn to blow up all pipelines going to Olokola or whatever it is called and I think they are not kidding.

But, why would the FG want to go ahead with this plan, knowing that it will eventually go up in flames? I mean, why waste time and energy on something like this, when we all know it's just not right? Smacks of sheer wickedness at it's peak.

If Obasanjo goes ahead with this then he is just wasting the country's money, unless he is going to use infra-red medium or bluetooth technology to transfer the oil to oloko whatever

wasting time? if they build the plant in the niger deltapeople will come to ask for dues. i live in wafi. i know how far.

now the yorubas take what belongs to the niger delta only for the northerners to be blamed later!

u know? i work with shell in warri and i can tell u dat these crooks in d delta are only interested in money. they are not after the betterment of their people.

Who are the the crooks?
Niger Deltans? People you have met in your short sojourn in Warri? etc etc
Please clarify.

@dranoel

don't mind them o jare, shey there is a refinery in kaduna?

Sijien:

u know? i work with shell in warri and i can tell u that these crooks in d delta are only interested in money. they are not after the betterment of their people.

I have said it time and again that all of the activities of militants in the delta area are just a foretaste of the troubles that looms large ahead of us. Myopic views like yours fails to recognise the larger Nigerian problems of ethnic bigotry, institutionalised corruption, jealousy and hatred for Minority ethnic groups in the Niger Delta.

who hates what? i was born abd brought up in warri and my fathers house was burnt because he is itsekiri by okumagba layout boys. we ar fighting ourselves and den we go yarn dust aftre

Sijien,
I was in Warri too during the crises period, my brother. I'm sorry about your dad's house. But we have to let go of past misdeeds for us to move ahead - if we want to move ahead.

At this point in time in the history of Warri, all the ethnic nationalities (the aborigines - Ijaw Itsekiri and Urhobo) should be more concerned about coming together and forging a common front at confronting the larger problems that stare us all in the face - problems whose masterminds are the past and present central government (FG) of this failed state called Nigeria.

It's no longer news that the current federal arrangement is fashioned out in such a way that the minorities in the Niger Delta are perpetually kept in the dark about the schemes and plans of the majority ethnic groupings. Are you not surprised that 50 years after oil exploitation started in this in the Niger Delta, the Niger Delta cannot boast of any standard city - similar and comparable to Abuja. Abuja was built with oil money from the Delta. And within a spate of some 15 years, it has grown to the level that it's probably the fastest growing city in the world! Wake up man!

Now, this LNG was to be cited in Escravos, to provide job opportunity for the restive youths in the region and calm frayed nerves. Yet, the powers that be would not allow this to happen. They gave all sorts of excuse and thrash to move it to Olokola -  an enclave between Ondo and Ogun States. They say that is their way of jumpstarting their economy. Now is that right? Is it right for one to use the resources of a people angling and crying for development to develop an hitherto unknown enclave?


Is it not a slap on our face that we should shut up and let other trample on our fundamental rights? Is it right for the FG to give out our lands in the Bakassi Peninsular to another country under the guise of making peace, and at thesame time militarising our land and killing the people? Just think about these weighty issues and put aside the thoughts of your fathers house that was burnt during the Ijaw-Itsekiri war. God will put you in a position to build a bigger house for your father and family. Let go of revenge and bitterness towards your brother and move on. The Ijaws are your brothers. So also are the other ethnic groups that cris-cross the Delta. We are all brothers in thesame struggle.

Sijien:

who hates what? i was born abd brought up in warri and my fathers house was burnt because he is itsekiri by okumagba layout boys. we ar fighting ourselves and den we go yarn dust aftre

If indeed you are Itsekiri by parentage, and you espouse the views you have expressed so far, then your sense of history, current realities and the future is GROSSLY TWISTED.

That you prefer foreigners to come and hijack your heritage because your brothers had a fight (during which you sustained injuries) reflects a sense of uncommon hatred for oneself.
Wake up!!!!

You are trying to sell yourself to the same people that instigated and funded the warri crises, if you are really a Niger Deltan.

I think you need to return to the place that you were born if you insist on your quixotic stance which does not work in Nigeria.

ono, we cant fashion a common front wen our people r willing to accept greedy leaders who dont have our interests at heart. it is not possible. our peopel dont go to school again. they r interested in deve and other shotcuts to gettng rich & it doesnt work dat way. how do u expect us to stand wen our so called leaders will prefer to build high fences and send their children abroad. which delta leader has done any serious investment in delta?
owo i wont even argue with u about were i come from. it is peeps like u dat said chxta is not ibo because he said the truth about igbo people. u r very stupid. i live and work in d place i was born and i have said dat b4. who funded d niger delta crisis? hausa? yoruba? igbo? abi we ourselves. d guns dat were used in the warri wahala was imported by warri people not any other person. am not going to waste time on you. yeye.

Sijien:

ono, we can't fashion a common front when our people r willing to accept greedy leaders who don't have our interests at heart. it is not possible. our peopel don't go to school again. they r interested in deve and other shotcuts to gettng rich & it doesnt work that way. how do u expect us to stand when our so called leaders will prefer to build high fences and send their children abroad. which delta leader has done any serious investment in delta?
owo i wont even argue with u about were i come from. it is peeps like u that said chxta is not ibo because he said the truth about igbo people. you're very stupid. i live and work in d place i was born and i have said that before. who funded d niger delta crisis? hausa? yoruba? igbo? abi we ourselves. d guns that were used in the warri wahala was imported by warri people not any other person. am not going to waste time on you. yeye.

So, what you're saying in effect is that we should go to our past and present leaders home (in the Niger Delta only - as they are the sole conspirators against our progress), detain them, arrest them (probably kill them) and then chart a new course to progress. Right? We should hold our leaders accountable. Well, as for me, I will not take that route.

In as much as our leaders are guilty as charged, I still believe that the root of corruption started with the exploitation of cride oil resources in the Delta.

I read an article recently where the whole operations of oil production activities, history, agreements and all were laid bare. My brother, if you read through, you'll agree with me that the Land Use Act, Natural Resources decress and other decrees instituted by the powers that be, just few years after the discovery of crude oil in the Delta were made without the knowledge of these leaders of ours that you're blaming. Go ad read all the laws that vested the authority to build operate, exploit all natural resources on the FG and come back to tell me if it's fair on our people.

I really don't have much time, but I'll advise you to read and understand the big issue rather than wasting time on deve palava and school runs.

yes, i am saying we should hold our leaders responsible because dey sold us out. as per d deve and school thing, na small water dey make ocean

Sijien
You are free to use all the negative adjectives that you can muster but it does not remove the fact that continuing to to tear down your brothers, without attacking the monsters that are perpertually sucking us dry, is flawed.

I insist that many of Nigeria's geo-political blocks in Nigeria are using our money and resources to fund and mastermind our plunder. The subject of this thread is a case in point.

As important as the in-house battle is, it is not as strategic as what is being done against us with 87% of our resources that go to the Feds.

The other week, tens were killed and hundreds rendered homeless when soldiers burnt batchers that the poor people were living because one soldier was killed. It wasn't done by our leaders.

What does Bayelsa have to show for funding Nigeria for the past forty years. Oh I forgot that it is not even on the national grid. That was not caused by our leaders

Delta state does not have a Federal University and tons of other things that others have now taken for granted.
That is not caused by our leaders.

Go and check the federal budget 2006 (I can send you one if you care) and I will tell you how and why ogun state makes more money than Delta despite you insistence on crucifying your brothers for the peanuts that they are getting.

ThatI have to explain these things to a Deltan is hurting, to say the least. Brother look at the big picture and stop seeing all the evil in your cousin simply because you see him everyday.

What is $60m dollars a month that Delta state government receives? What can it do?
SPDC's budget for this year when broken down into the 12months of the year is about $200m/month. That is more than three times the budget of the whole state.
Yet one man in the Fed minsistry of internal affairs went home with $240million. Who should be blamed? the Delta's leaders?.
There is a reported $12bn missing money from the first gulf war. Is it the Delta's leaders that are to blame?

Young man, we are being raped / plundered and decimated per second per second.

I put it to you that if and when the Delta stops being the cash cow of this immoral, corrupt and strangulating system called nigeria, it will cease to exist as a political entity.

Boy, open your eyes.

my eyes r wide open boy.it is urs dat r shut. u know senior oil workers r going on strike? is dis how ur militants want sympathy? by kiling people like m. udeya?

Oil workers on Sunday began a gradual shutdown of strategic installations in the Niger Delta, ahead of a three-day warning strike.
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File

Group Managing Director, NNPC, Biodun Kupolokun

The workers, through their umbrella bodies – Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria and the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers – had last week threatened to embark on a strike from Wednesday.

Findings by our correspondents revealed that the leaders of the two unions besieged major oil facilities in the region on Sunday afternoon to supervise their closure in compliance with the directive of their leaders.

The action of the oil workers came on the heels of the revelation that the leaders of PENGASSAN and NUPENG were under pressure by the Federal Government and its agencies to back down on the strike.

The National President of NUPENG, Mr. Peter Akpatason, in a telephone interview with our correspondents on Sunday evening, confirmed that members of the union had been directed to embark on a gradual shutdown of oil equipment in readiness for the strike.

Akpatason said the strike was irreversible.

A joint National Executive Committee meeting of the two unions in Benin on August 30, ordered the strike as a result of the deplorable security situation in the Niger Delta, which climaxed in the killing of an oil worker, Mr. Nelson Ujeya, on August 20.

The unions threatened to withdraw their services indefinitely if the government could not provide peaceful and safe environment in the region at the end of the warning strike.

However, our correspondents gathered that some installations, belonging to oil multinationals and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation in the region, had been locked as at 5pm on Sunday.

A top official of NUPENG in Warri, who spoke with our correspondents, said the action took place simultaneously in all oil facilities in the Niger Delta.

Akpatason, in the telephone interview with our correspondents, said the action was to ensure “a safe shutdown.

“We have directed our members to embark on a gradual shutdown of the oil facilities because it is going to be a total strike; it may not be out of place for them to start now to ensure safe reactivation later,” he said.

i hear the oil - workers are going on strike because they want increase in salary not because of the security situation in the niger delta.

Actually, it's because of the murder of one of their number (Mr. Nelson Ujeya) by militants. They are asking for improved security.

Militants murdered Ujeya
Or he was killed by soldiers of the JTF?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5298046.stm
Don't forget the hundreds of houses that were burnt in the Port harcourt slum at about the same time.

Within one day, the army shot and killed 13 Niger Deltans, of which Ujeya is one. Yet the militants have not killed any of its foreign hostages since their campaign started.
Who is fooling who?

As wrong as hostage taking is, does it warrant the flagrant murder that is being commited by Nigerian Soldiers?
How many Northerners did they kill when churches were burnt and several people were killed in Maiduguri during the cartoon crises.
How many people did they kill when OPC became the authority in Lagos.

@sijien, the militants are yours and they are in your domain. They are fighting the people that armed them because they wanted to remain in power.

For us in the Niger Delta, you may wish to know that we are not looking for your sympathy, we have had enough of it.
We are not looking for handouts, allocations or any such, it can fetch us next to nothing.
We seek, unashamedly, the control of our wellbeing, resources, failures, fears, succeses and destiny.
And for your information, we don't need your permission or co-operation.

@OWO

thanks so very much for correcting the misreprensation of events

My error.

Chxta:

My error.

You've made so much errors on this forum. And a lot of people have corrected you too. I think you're an[b] erratic person[/b]

Ha HA Ha! Interesting Read! I will sit here and watch what Sijen and co. have got to say

ono:

You've made so much errors on this forum. And a lot of people have corrected you too. I think you're an[b] erratic person[/b]

A lot? With the exception of Nutter (and that was a grammatical correction), I am yet to encounter more than three corrections in all my posts on Nairaland, so where did all those people materialize from?

As for my being erratic, why don't you wait until you meet me in person, or otherwise find out the true meaning of the word. I am quite consistent in all my views.

As for you my dear Ono, you are guilty of constantly attacking person, not issue. Sometimes I wonder whether you are worth the effort. . .

Chxta:

A lot? With the exception of Nutter (and that was a grammatical correction), I am yet to encounter more than three corrections in all my posts on Nairaland, so where did all those people materialize from?

As for my being erratic, why don't you wait until you meet me in person, or otherwise find out the true meaning of the word. I am quite consistent in all my views.

As for you my dear Ono, you are guilty of constantly attacking person, not issue. Sometimes I wonder whether you are worth the effort. . .

Well, I said all that not to hurt you. Don't take it too personal. One ''smiling smiley' would have made the difference, though. As per meeting you in person, well, I'll say not yet. But are you in PH?

And me, I seldom attack folks' personality on this forum. Rather, I've made wonderful friends on this site because of the way I relate with people. We can be friends, after all said.

ono:

Well, I said all that not to hurt you. Don't take it too personal. One ''smiling smiley' would have made the difference, though. As per meeting you in person, well, I'll say not yet. But are you in PH?

And me, I seldom attack folks' personality on this forum. Rather, I've made wonderful friends on this site because of the way I relate with people. We can be friends, after all said.

I am not angry my dear, can't get angry over something posted on the internet by someone who for all I know may be sittng right next to me, or on another end of the globe.

But having said all that, you need to learn to divorce issues from persons. That way we can all happily shout at each other in a debate, then go and cheer the Super Eagles together afterwards.

No, I am not in PH. Was there earlier in the year though, may not be there for a long time to come. . .

u guys forget ondo state has its own oil and gas reserves.

ok

buffny:

u guys forget ondo state has its own oil and gas reserves.

ok

You forget that some areas around the world, which are really not deltaic regions, hosts oil and gas resources.

Ono, i would quickly want to tell you that i was one of the people who push for the idea of setting up Olokola,  I think it is the best idea of the Obasanjo govt, 

Why the need for an EPZ in Olokola,  1. to reduce the popualtion of Lagos,  2. to create  a sea port as alternative to lagos,  incase of emergency,   ,  3 to create another industries area in Nigeria apart from lagos close to the sea,   4 to bring forgein investment into Nigeria,  TAX FREE,    5 to plan for Nigeria future,    6  Create alternate modern coastal city in Nigeria,   
Ono do you know that there is natural gas in Ondo state and most of the supply would be coming from that area,  but some from the niger delta,   On the issue of job,  a pumping station would be sited in the niger delta,
Olokola would end up to be the new Lagos with our design,   if you have ever check a map, the land in the warri area is already taken,  and the area is unstable and it would be unwise for any right thinking person to set up a company in Niger delta with all the kidnap and all going on the area,  who honestly want to do a business where his head would be cut off,  Olokola is a peaceful area and is less than 45 minute away from lagos, a good place to do business,  Olokola would be nigeria new london,  I  have been working for over a year to design a town planning map for the area so that it would not end up like lagos,  but i have not had the time to finish it, Check http://www.NigeriaONE.com for  design when finished  It is a smart move by the obasanjo govt , The president does not think about tribal reason why he set up olokola or the LNG,  all he thinks about is how good the idea is,  He read engineering, and he understand some of the engineering term involve better than you,  we alway in engineering built factory close to the source ,  And NEVER IN THE LOCATION OF THE MATERIAL,  This is the standard engineering practice anywhere in the world,  Only in Nigeria,  it is otherwise,  You would notice on CNN how the rebel burn down the pineline in Iraq, because they pump the oil to a different location for safety reason,  If you leave the material in the same location as the source,  you put your eggs in one basket,  that is what we have been doing we need to change that,   
Like all the 7 thermal station in the niger delta should not be built there ,  it should be built area the south west , which use 70% of the power,  Because of what in engineering we call lose which is lose over distance,  but in Nigeria,  tribal reason was used to set up the station in the area,  I know some of this may not make sense to you,  you have to be an engineer to understand why,     Just like it was correct to setup the kaduna refinery in  kaduna,  it was the correct engineering decision,  people of the niger delta may not like it but that engineering,  I am from the south too,  but i have to tell you the truth, 

there is no waste in cost of pinepline,  you need a safe environment to setup a LNG project and delta state is just not scienctifically the best place to place it,  It is an unsafe area,  I am sorry to tell you that,  but we have to face the fact,  the niger delta would continue to lose business if they continue the way they are going,   Ondo state is a better alternative for business in Nigeria,

the refinery in kaduna is not working, this olokola or what ever you people call it will end up being a white elephant project like the fayose poultry. That money will be better off used to rehabilitate the east - west road. You people think that the militants are only localised to the niger delta shey? Just wait till an opportunity of the same dimension or slightly lower is unleashed on your olokola or is it ondo state. Right now in the university of port harcourt, there has not been nepa for 2 days yet across the road, the entire skies above such multinationals like indomie and willbros is lit with their large street lights, the other part of the sky is lit by flares from an oil well.