Kula and other communities within the Oil Mining Licence (OML) 25 oil fields have reached an eight-point agreement with Shell Petroleum Development Company Limited on resumption of oil producing operations in the area.
The agreement was reached after a meeting on Friday in Port Harcourt between Shell, the communities, representatives of Rivers State government and regulatory authorities.
Spokesman for the Communities, Chief Anabs Sara-Igbe, who spoke at a press briefing with the chiefs and leaders of the community after the meeting, said the resumption of operations is tied to the implementation of an eight-point agreement reached by the parties.
Chief Sara-Igbe said under the agreement, the community would provide the necessary security to guarantee the operations of Shell while Shell is to provide community development for the communities in the form of employment for youths, provision of amenities such as electricity, roads, health facilities and scholarships for the indigenous students from the communities as well as contract jobs for indigenous contractors.
Chief Sara-Igbe said Shell must be seen to have started implementing its own part of the agreement before the communities would clear the way for it to resume operations.
Operations at the Shell platforms in OML 25 have been shut down for the last seven years following a breakdown in talks between Shell and the host communities on their commitments to community development. The shutdown had tied down the production of 45,000 barrels of crude oil everyday.
Sara-Igbe said resumption of operations would therefore benefit the company, the federal and state governments as well as the communities.
He added that if Shell failed to keep its own part of the bargain, the regulatory authorities would have no choice but to revoke their licence in OML 25.
