The House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream) has given the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) and two other oil companies two weeks to appear before it.
This followed the non-appearance of the NNPC and the oil companies at the Committee’s investigative hearing on the circumstances surrounding revocation of Oil Mining Lease, OML of Addax Petroleum Nigeria, and the award of same to Kaztec Engineering Limited/Salvic Petroleum Resources Limited (KEL/Slavic) Consortium.
Speaking on the development, the Chairman of the Committee, Musa Sarkin Adar from Sokoto State said the House and the National Assembly will not fold their arms watching some individuals shortchanging Nigeria.
The lawmaker also expressed anger over the absence of key players in the sale of the Asset saying that the investigative hearing is bothering on the management of the nation’s scarce resources.
He said that, if NNPC failed to appear as it has always done in the past, it will invite President Muhammadu Buhari as the Minister of Petroleum Resources to appear before the committee.
“We know as a law-abiding President, he will come. Then Nigerians will know that NNPC has disregarded and refused to appear before us and the President was invited.” Adar said.
The Minister of State Petroleum Resources, Mr Timiprey Silva in his presentation revealed that the action of the President to revoke the Oil Mining Lease was in line with the Petroleum Act and should be sustained.
He said, “Article 24 is very clear as it provides that, the minister may revoke any oil prospecting license or Oil Mining Licence in the event of clear breaches by a Licenses and other reasons specified in the Act.”
Mr Sylva informed that the said assets have not been optimally managed adding that, they were producing 130,000 Barrels Per Day before acquisition by Addax which fell to 25,000 Barrels Per Day.
It would be recalled that the Director, Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) Sarki Auwalu announced the revocation of Addax’s OMLs 123, 124, 126 and 137 a few days ago and the licences were awarded to Kaztec Engineering Limited/Salvic Petroleum Resources Limited (KEL/Slavic) Consortium.
PIAK
