As crises in the disputed OML 25 has not rises, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), has said it would resume drilling operation at the Oil Mining Licence (OML) 25 in the Kula Kingdom, Akuku-Toru Local Government Area of Rivers State two years after its facilities were shut down by locals.
Indigenes of the three host communities of the OML 25 shut down the facility in August 2017 over neglect and non-implementation of a memorandum of understanding and other development projects by the SPDC.
The locals said they preferred an indigenous company, Belema Oil to take over operatorship of the OML.
SPDC and the Federal Government had recently signed an agreement to resume operation at the OML which SPDC is operating as a consortium with 32.3 per cent stake on behalf of SPDC, Total E&P and Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC), in Joint Venture with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
NNPC in the new agreement will control 60 per cent stake in the OML while Belema Oil Producing Limited would retain its 7.7 per cent participating interest in the facility which it inherited from Chevron Nigeria Limited.
