By Solomon OKPO
Oil-bearing communities in Mbo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State have commended Oriental Energy Resources Limited for its sustained investment in host community development while lamenting what they described as decades of government neglect despite the area’s significant contribution to Nigeria’s oil and gas industry.
The position was made known by the Chairman of the Efiat/Mbo Board of Trustees, Oriental Energy Resources Limited, Barr. Inam Effiong Okon, and other community stakeholders during a stakeholders’ engagement with the Energy and Maritime Reporters of Nigeria (EMR) in Uyo on Friday.
The stakeholders said successive governments had failed to provide critical infrastructure, quality healthcare, educational facilities and other basic amenities in the oil-producing communities, adding that Oriental Energy had continued to bridge the gap through its Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives.
They listed completed projects to include a modern science laboratory in Efiat, teachers’ quarters, scholarships and educational support programmes, as well as the prompt remittance of the three per cent Host Community Development Trust (HCDT) Fund in line with the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
They also disclosed that the company plans to construct an 80-unit housing estate and a modern hospital, expand scholarship schemes, provide grants to market women and men, and train youths in technical and vocational skills, with outstanding participants to receive overseas training.
While describing Oriental Energy’s intervention as a model of sustainable partnership with host communities, the stakeholders expressed concern over the poor impact of statutory interventions by agencies established to serve oil-producing areas. They appealed to the Akwa Ibom State Government,
