By Ernest Scheyder
June 10 (Reuters) - Chevron Corp plans to nearlydouble its donation to Nigerian social projects over the nextfive years, part of a choreographed plan to improve the localeconomy and bolster the company's supply chain in the Africancountry, its second-largest source of crude oil.
Chevron is donating $40 million to the Niger DeltaPartnership Initiative (NDPI), a nonprofit it helped form in2010 with $50 million in seed money. The second round of fundingwill make NDPI the largest recipient of Chevron donations in thecompany's history, executives said.
The NDPI works with local organizations in the Niger RiverDelta to help cull HIV transmission rates, teach cassava farmersmarketing techniques and connect catfish breeders with feedsuppliers, among other projects.
The militant group Boko Haram, which is trying to create anIslamic state in northern Nigeria and recently kidnapped morethan 200 girls, has had little effect on southern Nigeria andthe Delta, executives and analysts said.
Still, criminal gangs have stolen oil and kidnappedresidents for more than a decade in the Delta, risks thatChevron and Royal Dutch Shell, the largest foreign oilcompany in Nigeria, have had to address.
"Our objective is for peace in the Delta. And the best waywe can contribute to peace, in our view, is the way we'reparticipating in NDPI," said Rhonda Zygocki, Chevron's executivevice president of policy and planning.
Chevron has pumped oil in Nigeria, Africa's largest energyproducer, for more than 40 years.
In 2013, the company pumped more crude oil in Nigeria thanany other country in which it operates besides the UnitedStates, the second year in a row the country has held suchimport for the company.
Chevron's production, part of a partnership with Nigeria'sstate-controlled oil company, has more than doubled in the pastseven years to 268,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day,according to regulatory filings.
The NDPI operates in nine Nigerian states along the Gulf ofGuinea, though it is headquartered in the capital of Abuja, inthe country's geographic center.
Using the Chevron donation, NDPI finds small charities onthe ground and partners with them on various issues.
For example, the nonprofit gave $59,978 to Forward Africa in2011 for a project designed to help residents of Nigeria's Imoand Abia states get more involved in local government. ForwardAfrica contributed $5,672 of its funds for the project.
While NPDI works with local banks to obtain financing forsome Nigerian projects, it tries to encourage local markets tothrive without Chevron's influence, said Dennis Flemming, NDPI'sdirector
"We try not to distort a market when we do something here,"Flemming said.
Chevron and foundation staff acknowledged that donations tocommunities in areas where the company operates are expected,though they said it is not part of a quid pro quo arrangement toobtain access to energy reserves. (Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Terry Wade andCynthia Osterman)
