It also urged both parties in the dispute to maintain the peace, pending the resolution of the matter, stressing that it was determined to ensure that the fit and proper thing was done immediately.

The dispute between Chevron and the Ugbororo, Ugbegugun and Dembele communities in Warri South Local Government of the state is over the naming of the host community trust fund established for the communities and the composition of its Board of Trustees.

People from the three communities were reported to have staged a protest in the Escravos Terminal area, accusing Chevron of going against the Petroleum Industry Act (2021).

At a meeting with the feuding parties at the Abuja headquarters of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, the Chief Executive of NUPRC, Gbenga Komolafe, directed the oil firm to resolve the matter in two weeks, according to a statement issued by the agency on Wednesday.

The statement read in part, “Having listened to the submissions of the parties, Komolafe issued a regulatory position and directed Chevron on the resolution of the matter which must be implemented within two weeks. He emphasised that the law which was very explicit on the matter in contention must be obeyed by all the parties concerned.

“Among other directives, Komolafe called for the immediate convening of consultation meetings with the communities on the proper delineation and naming of the fund in compliance with the PIA and the re-composition of the Board of Trustees in line with an earlier directive of the commission.”

The commission stated that the process, which must be supervised by its Warri Regional Office, was expected to be finalised and the report sent to the NUPRC within two weeks.

Data obtained from the country’s oil firm in Abuja on Friday indicated that the five IOCs include Shell Petroleum Development Company, Mobil Producing Nigeria, Chevron Nigeria Limited, Total Exploration and Production Nigeria, and Nigeria Agip Oil Company.

It was also learnt that Nigeria’s total cash call arrears to the firms was initially $4.689bn before it was cut down to the current amount of $971.8m after various repayments by the Federal Government through its oil firm – Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.

Cash calls are sent by joint venture operators to non-operating partners for payment in the light of anticipated future capital, operating expenditures or the need for additional capital contributions.

The Federal Government through NNPC had over the years piled up unpaid bills, referred to as cash calls, which it was obliged to pay the IOCs with which it had joint ventures for oil exploration and production.

Figures from NNPC showed that the national oil company had cleared its total negotiated debts with both MPN and CNL, which were put at $833.75m and $1.097bn respectively.

The oil firm’s total negotiated debts with SPDC, TEPNG and NOAC were outlined as $1.37bn, $610.97m and $774.66m respectively, out of which the total payments to date by NNPC to the three IOCs were $777.4m, $458.91m and $550.01m respectively.

This leaves an outstanding balance of $595.1m to SPDC, $152.06m to TEPNG and $224.65m to NAOC.

Reacting to the development, industry analysts stated that the delay in the repayments of cash call arrears by Nigeria to IOCs had hindered oil and gas investment across the country.

They, however, commended the Federal Government and NNPC for the repayment of the debts, stressing that this would boost investor confidence in Nigeria.

The Chief Executive Officer, Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise, Dr. Muda Yusuf, explained that the delay in cash call repayments had been a drag on the growth of Nigeria’s oil sector.

He said, “I think we should commend the government and NNPC on this because I know that the cash call arrears are normally far more than what it is now. So for them to have cleared them to the level that we are now talking about it being under $1bn is something to be commended.

“However, it is important to point out that this issue of cash call arrears has been a major bottleneck to the growth of our oil and gas sector, because each time that the private IOCs and other oil producers put their money down, most times the government is not able to put its own cash call in terms of the counterpart funding.

“And these things have a way of slowing down the growth of investments in the sector. So the fact that this has been cleared significantly is something for which we must commend the government and NNPC. But the bigger reform is actually to get the government to exit completely and allow this sector to run as a purely private enterprise.”

In 2016, the national oil company signed the cash call repayment agreements with the five IOCs to defray the cash-call arrears within a period of five years after many years of its indebtedness to JV partners.

Also, the government through the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources negotiated a discount with the five IOCs in December 2016.

The negotiations led to the reduction of the debt from about $5.1bn to $4.68bn.

The Federal Government through the NNPC had since continued to reduce the debt payments in installments.

This notice is to compel Chevron Nigeria Limited, to honour the agreement it reached with the union on June 20, 2019.

In a statement signed by the President and General Secretary of NUPENG, Prince Williams Akporeha and Afolabi Olawale, the union said: “NUPENG, with deep frustration and worries, would like to alert the general public and all relevant authorities of the blatant violation of agreement reached between Chevron Nigeria Limited Company and unions in the industry. It is public knowledge that unions in the oil and gas industry had a protracted negotiation with Chevron Nigeria Limited over 70 per cent labour manpower reduction which it (Chevron) claimed was required in view of reduction in their operations in the oil and gas Industry. After up to one year negotiation, brokered by Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC; National Petroleum Investment Management Services, NAPIMS, and Ministry of Labour, it was agreed that considering the intervention of all the institutions mentioned above and the various justifications made, only 30 per centof the Labour Manpower Contract Workers will be relieved. Of the 1,856 contract workers in the company, NUPENG has 1,120; PENGASSAN, 213; and non-unionised, 523. It was agreed that the 30% reduction shall be spread in equal percentage among the three groups. It was also agreed that union executives (NUPENG and PENGASSAN) will not be affected by the reduction, that Chevron Nigeria Limited will not in any guise change the Labour manpower to service contracts. It was also agreed that anyone that voluntarily offers to go will be counted as part of the agreed 30%. Unfortunately, immediately after the agreement was reached, Chevron started executing the exercise in blatant violation of the agreed terms, ostensibly to either put NUPENG in bad light as troublesome or for extinction because only NUPENG members have been exited from work, leaving behind the Non- Unionised workers and PENGASSAN members. It is further embarrassing to see that NUPENG executives are also part of those already locked out. From our record, over 500 of NUPENG members are being sacked. We further learned that the intention of Chevron is to change the contract to short term service contract and we see this as unfair and a breach of agreement reached with us in bad faith. All NUPENG executives should be called back to work, the percentage of reduction agreed should be spread to the three groups as agreed to avoid creating the impression that NUPENG was the target of the exercise. The good disposition of the new leadership of NUPENG should not be taken for granted. Chevron should not be allowed to use this exercise to change the Labour Manpower contract to service contract in a disguised manner. Consequent on the above demands and having been pushed to the wall, NUPENG, hereby, puts all our members on red alert should Chevron Nigeria Limited and its contractors fail to honour or comply with our demands within the next seven days, we would also not hesitate to take all necessary legal options available to us, including industrial actions, to press home our legitimate demands.”