Hostilities imminent in N/Delta following cancelation of oil blocs awarded to indigenes
Anger and rising tension can be said to be the scenario playing out in the hitherto peaceful Niger Delta following the sudden discovery that the Federal Government canceled Oil Prospecting Licences of OPL 2001, 2002 and 2003.
This is coming on the heels of a media briefing in Abuja recently by the affected investors to the oil blocs.
Copies of the letters which were issued to the investors on June 16, 2015 by the DPR, were made available to journalists, in which the DPR confirmed the three investors as successful bidders for the blocs and directed them to make the required payments as signature bonuses for the licences.
The indigenous investors affected by the cancellation are Jahcon International Limited, Hi Rev Exploration, Production Limited and Oil and Industrial Services Limited.
They averred that after they won the bids for the blocs in 2007, the bid round were stalled for eight years by litigation until it was resolved amicably in 2015.
But rather than complying with the terms of the resolutions, the investors who pleaded anonymity for fear of victimisation, said the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), handed offers of OPLs 2001, 2002 and 2003 to Jahcon International Limited, Hi Rev Exploration and Production Limited and Oil and Industrial Services Limited, respectively.
One of the major investors in OPL 2001, stated that many Niger Delta indigenes were pained by the action of the president in revoking the licences of citizens from the oil-rich region without carrying out thorough consultations.
According to the indigenous investor, angry youths were already threatening to stop any attempt by the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, NPDC, to commence work on the oil field.
Investors in OPL 2002, they noted that although the court had directed all parties to stay action with respect to working on the field, officials of the NPDC recently made moves to commence activities on the field.
But in a swift reaction, Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of the NNPC, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, confirmed the development, and was quick to point out that the case was in court and that the NNPC and its subsidiary, NPDC, would abide by the rulings of the court.
in his reaction, Ughamadu said, “I don’t want to comment on what they are dishing out because we are already in court. We have made two appearances in court on this matter. It is only the court that resolves issues like this and if it rules tomorrow that the decision taken on Party A is wrong, then we will abide by the ruling of the court.”
They disclosed further that two of the firms, Jahcon International Limited and Oil and Industrial Services Limited made complete payments, while Hi Rev Exploration and Production Limited made part payment and is still in the process of completing its transaction with the DPR.
But trouble seemed to have started when it was observed that President Muhammadu Buhari approved a request by the NNPC demanding the withdrawal of the licences from the investors and handing over the oil blocs to the NPDC, a subsidiary of NNPC.
A letter of request to Buhari, dated December 20, 2016 from NNPC also shown to newsmen, indicated that the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mr. Maikanti Baru acknowledged that OPLs 2001, 2002 and 2003 in OML 13, which were recovered from Shell by the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, were “inadvertently revoked” by Obasanjo’s administration and “back-converted to greenfield OPL before being resized into OPLs 2001, 2002 and 2003 and offered under the 2007 Licensing Round.”
A key factor and point of argument observed by newsmen was that Maikanti’s letter, which insisted that the OPLs belong to NPDC, did not disclose that NPDC did submit a bid for one of the blocks in the 2007 open licensing round but lost as a result of low bid.
Efforts to get additional clarification at the presidency and Ministry of Petroleum Resources on the matter failed.
