Oloibiri Oil Well Discovery Dispute: Nigerian High Court Rules In Favour Of Otuabagi Community
March 15, 2024
This development has laid to rest an age-long contradiction over the rightful owner of the land where oil was first discovered in commercial quantity and quality in Otuabagi community in the Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State in 1956.
The Ogbia High Court sitting in Yenagoa on Tuesday ruled that Otuabagi community is the host of the first oil well discovered in commercial quantities in Nigeria.
The presiding judge, Justice Simon Amaduobogha, who entered the terms of the settlement reached by parties following mediation by the Ijaw National Congress (INC), as consent judgement also ruled that Oloibiri Museum and Research Centre be sited in Otuabagi – where crude oil was first discovered in commercial quantities in 1956.
The court, in the suit marked OHC/10/2021 and instituted by Oloibiri community against the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Bayelsa State Government, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, Shell Petroleum Development Company, Otuabagi, Otuogidi and Opume communities, further ordered Oloibiri community to desist from demanding relocation of the museum and research centre project or any part thereof since the earmarked project can only be sited where artefacts such as the first oil well are located.
This development has laid to rest an age-long contradiction over the rightful owner of the land where oil was first discovered in commercial quantity and quality in Otuabagi community in the Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State in 1956.
It should be recalled that the famed Oloibiri oil field had 21 oil wells. The wells were discovered and named sequentially, starting with the first discovery on January 15, 1956, in Otuabagi, in the then Oloibiri District, Brass Division, in pre-independence Nigeria.
Otuabagi hosted wells: 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 and 21. Otuogidi hosted wells 6 and 12, and Opume hosted well 4. Sadly, Oloibiri community had none.
In 2021, the Federal Government approved the siting of the Museum and Research Centre project in Otuabagi, Otuogidi and Opume -landlords of the Oloibiri Field at a cost of N117 billion being developed by the Petroleum Technology Development Fund, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board. Other partners are Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, and the Bayelsa Government.
