SAN FRANCISCO, May 3, (THEWILL) – The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has stated that Anambra, Enugu and Kogi states cannot be regarded as oil producing states until some necessary conditions are met.
In a letter to the Senate Committee on Petroleum (Upstream), the DPR said that the three states could only be declared oil bearing states if the oil firm in the area, Orient Oil, scales up its operations from oil prospecting to oil mining lease.
It insisted that the states cannot be categorised as oil producing states for now because they have not met the necessary requirements.
Reacting to the letter, Chairman of the Committee, Senator Tayo Alasoadura, said the issue at stake has to do with a referral to the committee on the contentious boundary between the three states.
He noted that a report that said “the Federal Government confirms Anambra oil producing status” threw up the matter to the front burner saying his committee lacked the power to declare an oil-producing status on a state.
He said that the committee believed that the agency is in the best position to settle the matter with the National Boundary Commission (NBC) and it wrote to the DPR “but their response was not quite satisfactory.”
On his part, Senator Chukwuka Utazi (Enugu North) noted that the issue of OPL 915 and 916 dated back to antiquity.
Utazi said: “I didn’t know that this motion would come up, because we had already resolved the issue when Senator Isaac Mohammed Alfa was away.
“Kogi and Enugu states do not have problem; the two are in agreement. But Enugu and Anambra are not in agreement.
“We in Enugu want to be declared as oil producing state too. Let that be done pending when the boundary commission finishes its work.”
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