Abstract

Ogbunagbe E. Wellington

This study examined royalty interest management strategy and cost of oil and gas production in the Nigerian Niger-Delta. The respondents were sixteen opinion leaders from two oil and gas bearing communities in Rivers State. The survey research design was adopted for the study. The spearman rank order correlation coefficient was used to test the hypotheses. Results indicated that there is a strong and significant relationship between royalty interest and oil and gas production; and there is a positive and significant relationship between resource control and Niger-Delta development. It was concluded that royalty interest is a source of revenue paid to a land owner by an oil and gas company for the drilling of oil and gas from his domain, which will make the land owner to freely allow the oil and gas company to continue the process of oil and gas production. It was recommended that revenue right of collecting royalty interest from the oil and gas companies should be accorded the Niger-Delta region so that oil and gas production will take place in the region without disruptions; the Niger-Delta should be accorded the right of resource control in order to enable them develop the region in every ramification.