http://allafrica.com/stories/201002011712.html

Port Harcourt — Oil-bearing communities in the Niger-Delta have called on the National Assembly to suspend debate on the Petroleum Industry Bill until what they termed proper consultation with the people have been carried out on it.

The statement signed by Celestine Nkabari and leaders of other civil society groups in the region said the bill has only addressed the commercial production aspects of oil operations in the country leaving out matters of utmost importance to oil-bearing communities:

Gas to power remains the best answer to solving the problem of gas flaring and non-accessibility to power by rural dwellers in Nigeria. This was the consensus at an energy roundtable, a programme of The SUNGAS(Sustainable Utilisation of Nigeria’s Gas and Renewable Energy Resources) Project, organized by Social Development Integrated Center, (Social Action) to discuss ways to overcoming Nigeria’s complex energy crisis by sustainably utilizing the abundantly available associated (flared) gas in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital. The roundtable, with the theme; ‘ASSOCIATED GAS TO POWER: A BETTER ENERGY OPTION’, which held on Thursday, 10 December in Port Harcourt, provided a forum for the discussion of the policy issues and constraints that affect the effective utilization of associated gas for small to medium scale local energy generation and sort ways to overcoming them.

http://www..sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2009/dec/03/national-03-12-2009-12.htm

From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa

Niger Delta communities and civil society groups are mobilizing against the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) by the National Assembly.

The communities and the civil society groups described the Bill as presently proposed as anti-Niger Delta people.
This was the decision reached after a two-day consultative meeting organized by Social Action, Stakeholders Democracy Network (SDN) and Bayelsa Non-Governmental Forum (BANGOF), in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State..