The goose that “lays the golden egg” battles with environmental peckers

It is not easy operating in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector, many companies in the sector are telling “Heard on the street.” It is popularly known that companies operating in the sector have to deal with the issue of insecurity, especially from the self acclaimed militants of the Niger Delta, who want a piece of the cake from the oil mining activities in the region.

However, besides insecurity another major hazard faced by oil companies operating in the Niger Delta are the multiplicity of environmental regulatory bodies from both the federal, state and local government levels. Oil firms say there are minimum of five different regulatory bodies in the oil and gas sector, which at different times visit the firms seeking to enforce environmental regulations, often times with similar and conflicting demands.

The regulators at the federal level; officials from the Ministry of Environment (MOE), National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), and the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (FEPA).

The companies in the oil and gas sector also have the additional burden of dealing with the state’s and local government agencies, which also claim to have responsibility for protecting the environment. The result is that many companies in the sector spend valuable man-hours and resources dealing with these different regulatory agencies that show up at their offices at different times throughout the year, often times with not too honest intentions.

Now oil companies are hoping that the presidential ease of doing business council will take a look at this burden plaguing the goose that lays the “golden egg” as their continuous pecking is reducing its fertility.