Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja
Global Gas, an indigenous gas processing company, has alleged that despite interventions by former President Olusegun Obasanjo and late Nigerian leader, Umar Yar’Adua, Shell failed to honour its agreement to supply gas to the firm, leading to its eventual shutdown.
Shell recently completed a Sale and Purchase Agreement (SPA) with a consortium of five companies in Nigeria in a $2.4 billion assets sale deal.
But Global Gas’ Chief Executive, Kenneth Yellowe, is now demanding justice over the development due to severe losses the company incurred from the shutdown of the gas plant valued at over $500 million at the time.
Speaking on the matter in Abuja, Yellowe stated that despite the pendency of the matter at the supreme court, it was unacceptable that Shell went ahead to sell off its assets to Renaissance Consortium.
He therefore urged the authorities as well as Shell to respect the courts of the land.
“Global Gas is the first indigenous gas processing operator in Nigeria. Global was established in 1998. We had discussions with Shell to see how we could harness the gas that was being wasted.
“Then in the 90s, Nigeria was responsible for over 25 per cent of greenhouse gas emitted into the atmosphere. And Nigeria was a pariah nation. We were busy looking for investors to come into the country to help manage this waste.
“I brought some of my partners from the United States. We came to Nigeria and then engaged Shell in discussions. Those discussions led to a gas agreement. The first gas agreement in the country at the time. It was signed sometime in March of 1998. The objective of that agreement was for Global to capture the gas,” he said during a briefing in Abuja.
According to him, the objective of the deal was to harness the gas that was being flared for the good of Nigerians, stressing that at the time, the defunct NAL Merchant Bank managed a private placement on behalf of the company to raise funds.
Having set up the gas processing facility in an area called Cawthorne Channel on Yellowe Island in Rivers state, the company stated that it started operations and that Shell initially kept to its promise to supply gas.
He noted that for some ‘strange reason’, the gas that was supposed to be supplied to Global, which employed over 3,000 Nigerians at the time, but that it was being diverted to Nigeria LNG for export because it was more lucrative to export.
“All these were frustrating. Around December of 2010, when we realised that Shell was really not serious about giving us gas, we had to shut down the operations because it was costing us more to keep our doors open than to continue to leave the doors open and not get any gas and no revenue.
“We did everything. We spoke to President Olusegun Obasanjo when he was in office. Sometimes President Obasanjo would call Shell and say, ‘what are you doing? You have an agreement, honour it’. President Umar Yar’adua did the same thing. He sent one of his ministers to go and see what was going on.
“President Yar’adua was really committed to seeing how we could increase gas supply to the turbines in the country to improve power supply in the country to become a bit more economically viable because you now had industries beginning to mushroom around these power plants,” he added.
Last modified: December 31, 2024
