Chevron Confirms Commitment to Develop Niger Delta

Fawthrop stated this in Abuja when he visited Nigeria's Minister of Niger Delta Affairs Obong Ufot Ekaette, adding that the company's activities had spanned a period of 50 years, manifesting in commercial oil exploration and community development successes.

He said Chevron better understands the terrain of the region with 50 years of its existence and knows where its services are needed.

"We cannot do this outside now that there is a ministry on ground and thus the essence of this visit, so that we can rub minds to partner in this vein," he added.

In his response, the minister said some host communities had complained of the ill treatment by some oil companies that had kept the region at the present state.

He said although the government had recognized some good works done by some oil companies, they still needed to intensify their efforts.

He explained that the struggle for development of the region has been on and several attempts by oil companies to tackle the problems have yielded little or no results.

"The ministry will continue to interface with stakeholders, so that there would be synergy in order to avoid duplications of efforts and waste of resources," the minister said.

Ekaette noted that it would be better to understand the causes of militancy in a bid to achieve the desired results.

The Niger Delta is an unstable area of Nigeria ,and inter ethnic clashes are common practice, often access to oil revenue is the trigger for the violence.

Author: Ksenia Kochneva