Belowis an article published by All Africa:

Top oil operators in the country met yesterday in Abuja over the oil spill report submitted to President Goodluck Jonathan recently by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) on Ogoni, a community in Rivers State

The meeting which held at the headquarters of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporations (NNPC) brought together top companies in the industry such as Shell, Total, Chevron and Agip.

Speaking at the meeting, the Group Managing Director of NNPC, Engineer Austen Oniwon said the cleaning up of Ogoni land is a collective responsibility, adding that NNPC and its Joint Venture partners will work together to recover Ogoni land and give life back to the community.

The United Nation's Environmental Assessment report said about $1 billion is required for cleaning up the mess in Ogoni land, a job that will take at least 30 years to complete.

We must come together to fashion out a common and unified approach to address the key recommendations contained in the UN Report on Ogoni land," Oniwon said.

The Group General Manager, NNPC Group Public Affairs, Dr. Levi Ajuonuma said in a statement yesterday that a committee will be set up to study and evaluate the report and come up with desirable action plan that would bring back the glory of Ogoni land.

He said the meeting of the stakeholders over the UN Report was a testimony of how important they regarded the Ogoni land issue and also proved to all that oil companies were not out to damage the environment in which they operate.

he GMD urged oil companies operating in Ogoni land to ensure the protection of the environment in the course of their exploration and production of oil.