The house passed the resolution on Wednesday during the plenary session after adopting a motion sponsored by Ahmadu Jaha, a lawmaker from Borno state.
The lawmaker said international best practice demands that commercially non-viable oil well platforms be decommissioned to prevent environmental hazards or interference with other maritime activities.Citing section 232 of the Petroleum Industry Act, Jaha said the law stipulates that at the end of their exploration activities, oil companies are to ensure that the environment is returned to its original state by decommissioning and disposing of non-viable platforms.
Jaha claimed that local and foreign oil and gas companies have “persistently disregarded” the extant laws by “abandoning non-viable platforms and facilities at their operational bases” without following the standard practices.He said the situation poses “great risks to the host communities as the emission of poisonous gases from abandoned facilities are resulting in unexplainable ailments and terminal diseases among the people”.
Jaha said the relevant regulatory bodies “are not taking any serious steps to set things right”, adding that members of the host communities are “suffering life-threatening hardship as a result of negligence” of the parties involved.