Serious Controversy Trails Oil Block Revocation By President Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari’s approval of the withdrawal of Oil Prospecting Licenses 2001, 2002 and 2003 in the Utapate Field won by indigenes of the Niger Delta is not only being tackled by the investors but may lead to chaos in the oil-rich region if not properly addressed.

According to the investors, about N44.6bn signature bonuses paid for the licenses is also under threat following the approval of the President to withdraw the OPLs from the winners who emerged after the Federal Government opened up the oil blocks to bidders in the 2007 bid rounds.

After winning the bids for the blocks, the bid round was stalled for eight years by litigation until it was resolved amicably in 2015, before the Department of Petroleum Resources handed OPLs 2001, 2002 and 2003 to Jahcon International Limited, Hi Rev Exploration and Production Limited and Oil and Industrial Services Limited, respectively.

In the letters, which were issued to the investors on June 16, 2015, copies of which were made available to journalists in Abuja on Monday, the DPR confirmed the three investors as successful bidders for the blocks and directed them to make the required payments as signature bonuses for the licences.

Jahcon International Limited and Oil and Industrial Services Limited made complete payments, while Hi Rev Exploration and Production Limited made part payment and is in the process of completing its transaction with the DPR.

But despite these processes and payments, the President approved a request by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation demanding the withdrawal of the licences from the investors and handing over the oil blocks to the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, a subsidiary of the NNPC.

The approval, according to the investors in the oil blocks, has raised tension in the Niger Delta region, particularly in Akwa Ibom communities where the oil field is located, as youths in the area have vowed to resist attempts by the government to deny indigenes of the area the right to the OPLs.

In the NNPC’s letter of request to Buhari, which was dated December 20, 2016, and made available to journalists, the corporation’s boss, Maikanti Baru, acknowledged that OPLs 2001, 2002 and 2003 in Oil Mining Lease 13, which were recovered from Shell by the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, were “inadvertently revoked” and “back-converted to greenfield OPL before being resized into OPLs 2001, 2002 and 2003 and offered under the 2007 licensing round.”

Punch