Niger Delter Indegenes To Get Oil Blocks

To douse tension in the oil-rich Niger Delta, the Federal
Government plans to award to indigenes of the region marginal fields’ oil blocks abandoned by the oil majors as being not commercially viable.
The plan is in line with the government’s larger objective of reducing major incidents of restiveness to about 90 per cent by next year. Over the years, there have been agitations over oil resource ownership, which have become intense with allegations that about 90 per cent of northerners own the oil blocks awarded in the country.
If the plan is implemented, the ownership structure of the nation’s petroleum assets will not only begin to change, but also empower the host region, which has for decades suffered economic deprivation and environmental degradation on account of these resources.
Source Guardian Newspaper.