The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, has said oil companies will not return to Niger Delta until peace and security is guaranteed in the state.

Sylva, on Monday in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, at a special town hall meeting organised by the state government and the Ministry of Petroleum Resources with chiefs, youths and other stakeholders in the state, added that oil firms returning to Niger Delta amid insecurity will only escalate Nigeria’s cost of crude oil production.

He called on the youths and residents of the region to shun violence and restiveness, but instead work for peace and security as preconditions for multinationals to relocate.

“We look at it from the perspective of cost. It will be cheaper for oil companies to operate from here because it is nearer from the operating areas.

“The only concern is that we have a responsibility to bring peace and security because that is another source of cost.

“If you don’t have peace and security and the oil companies move back here, then you add to the cost of oil production,” he disclosed.

Sylva also noted that, it will make sense to the oil companies to return if the environment is safe because it will be cheaper for them.

“They were here before. Shell was in Port Harcourt and Warri and most of other companies were here. They only ran away when insecurity took over the region. It is time to bring back peace and security so that those firms can return. On our part as the ministry, we are not against the oil companies moving back,” he said.