The Controversy Behind New LNG Plants: A Call to Tinubu and NNPCL

The National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and President Bola Tinubu have been asked to abandon plans to build five small LNG plants in Kogi State.

It is tyrannical to run a gas pipeline from Urhobo land to supply the five tiny LNG plants in Kogi without Urhobo hosting any of them, according to Dr. Obiuwevbi Ominimini, National Chairman of Urhobo Oil and Gas Nationality, who made the plea on Friday.

"This is oppressive to the Urhobo Nation," he declared. Despite having Nigeria's largest reserves of crude oil and gas, the Urhobo ethnic group has nothing to show for it.

Every year, our children graduate from higher institutions and cruise the streets of the Delta, many of them on okadas, while the children of wealthy Northerners work in the Nigerian government's oil and gas parastatals. It is not acceptable.

Because oil exploitation has ruined our ecology, we are no longer able to fish or cultivate. Despite the fact that Urhobo land is significantly more damaged than Ogoni territory, no environmental cleanup or repair has been done.

Although gas flaring is a major cause of disease among our people, the International Oil Companies' (IOCs') payment to the federal government for the gas flare penalty offers no particular advantages to the Urhobo people. This is yet another evil directed upon the Urhobo people.

He claimed that while those in possession of substantial minerals such as gold, lithium, tin, columbite, iron ore, etc., are taking them for themselves, the people of Nigeria had been taken advantage of for far too long. The country as a whole is using the money obtained from the siphoning of Urhobo gas and oil.

"We can no longer tolerate this injustice," he continued. Enough is enough.

As part of its commitment to spearheading the nation's gas revolution, the NNPCL announced last week that it had begun building on five small LNG plants in Ajaokuta, Kogi State.

According to the statement, the program aims to increase Nigeria's domestic gas use and is anticipated to improve energy access, encourage industrialization, and generate employment opportunities.

However, Ominimini recalled that in 2024, the Urhobo Oil and Gas Nationality (UROAGAN) had requested that the same federal government and NNPCL build two LNG facilities on Urhobo land: one in the Ethiope West Area and one in the Ughelli North Area. However, they had not heard back.

When he learned that the five small LNG plants in Kogi will use gas from the Urhobo Nation in Delta State and some from Edo State, he was shocked.

He said, "Enough is enough," and deemed such behavior intolerable.