By Ken Afor
Following the planned relocation of some departments and units of the Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) from Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, to Lagos, a staff member of the agency has disagreed with the reasons given by the leadership.
According to the staff member, whose identity was not disclosed, the Lagos office of the NUPRC should not be a yardstick for relocating about 200 employees from Abuja.
It would be recalled that last week, Engr. Gbenga Komolafe, the Chief Executive Officer of NUPRC, stated that the relocation of the agency was based on technical or operational organization bases.
According to Engr. Komolafe, some of the operational terminals controlled by the agency that require physical and close monitoring are located outside Abuja within the Lagos zone.
He said, “You have to do physical oversight. You want to monitor the terminals we use. You don’t often do this remotely by staying in Abuja, you have to be on site. More than 50% or 60% of the operational activities are located within the Lagos zone.”
However, the staff, while countering the CEO, argued that 50% – 60% of its operations do not occur in Lagos but in the Niger Delta region of the country, which accounts for about 90% of operations. He noted that the much talked about Lagos Zonal office by the CEO has the least activities to monitor since the Aje Field is currently not operational.
The staff said, “This is because such operations relate to importation of Refined Petroleum Products, in fact you can add Dangote Refinery if you like but the regulatory oversight of these operations is the responsibility of its sister Agency, The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA). Therefore, the justification given by the Chief Executive for the movement of 200 staff to Lagos is invalid and the scenarios he painted are not correct.”
“There are over 300 oil producing fields and almost 270 production flow stations but only one (Aje field) is located in Lagos State. The rest are mostly located in the Niger Delta. For Onshore operations the crude oil and gas production facilities are located in Delta (39.8%), Bayelsa (26.8%), Rivers (20.5%), Edo (5.3%), Imo (4.4%), Abia (2.6%), Akwa Ibom (0.5%) and Ondo (0.1%) with none located in Lagos State. However, for Offshore operations, the facilities are located in Akwa Ibom (51.5%), Delta (25.3%), Rivers (12.3%), Ondo (5.9%), Bayelsa (4.7%) and Lagos (0.3%). While the field operations of these fields are monitored by regional offices that are Located in Lagos, Owerri, Port Harcourt and Warri, it can be seen from these ratios that Lagos Zonal office has the least activities to monitor, especially since Aje Field is currently not operational.”
The staff emphasized that production and operations of terminals are not monitored in Abuja but in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, which has the highest number of oil and gas terminals, as well as in Warri in Delta State and the regional offices in Lagos.
