Total Energy @ 60: Ebereonw Lauds Rivers Journalists Over Role In Company’s Successes

The Country Communications Manager of Total Energy Plc, Mr. Charles Ebereonwu, has  commended media practitioners in Rivers State for pivotal roles played towards its operational successes.

Addressing the executive members of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Rivers State at the Ernest Ikoli Press Center, Moscow Road, Port Harcourt on Wednesday when he led officials of the company on a Thank You visit to journalists in the state, Ebereonwu described the media practitioners as dependable allies who through their reportage, have taken the oil and gas giants to an enviable height.

Mr. Ebereonwu who said they were at the NUJ State Secretariat to thankjournalists in Rivers State for the kind of support given to Total Energies. 

“You have not worked with us as strangers.  You worked with us as key stake holders in the enterprise of building the Niger Delta region and by extension, building the Nigerian economy.

“When you thank a person who is doing well, he will have the motivation to do more.  Like Oliver Twist, we always want more.  We want more collaboration; we want more advice because we are not claiming that we know everything.  So, when you hear some things, you can always call us for advice and suggestions”, he said.

Stressing that those who have followed the company’s trajectory would attest to its deep relationship with the media, the Country Communications Manager said the company cannot succeed if it doesn’t work with the media, particularly in the Niger Delta where it has its operations headquarters.

In his words, “As far as we are concerned, the Niger Delta remains our operational headquarters.  It is not in doubt.  You don’t tell a blind man that there is not pepper in the soup, because the blindness will not affect the taste.  It is only the mouth and tongue that will tell whether there is pepper of not”.

Mr. Ebereonwu disclosed that Total Energies had its first operational base in Obagi (Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni LGA) in 1962 when it discovered oil there, adding “Till now, there is no Total Energies without the Niger Delta”.

“If Total Energies didn’t have the totality of the Niger Delta, we wouldn’t have prospered large enough and even expand beyond the shores of the Niger Delta.  If you arrive a city, and the very first place you got to does not treat you well, you don’t prosper in that place.  There is no way you can expand beyond the place you landed first.

“Because the media here received us, accepted and worked with us, we are today marking 60 years of our upstream operations in Nigeria.  We’ve come to say thank you and inform you that later in the month of May, we’ll be celebrating our 60th anniversary and successful operations for that matter!

“In these 60 years, we have impacted a lot of lives not only in the Niger Delta but all over Nigeria.  Today, we are the only IOC that seems to be doing something regardless of the uncertainties within the regulatory and legal environment.  For instance, issues around the PIA.  Many companies have adopted the ‘sidon look’ approach. Investors are not investing until they have clarity on what’s going on”, he said, adding that despite obstacles in the oil and gas sector, the company has continued to demonstrate faith in Nigeria.