SaharaReporters had reported how OMLs 123, 124, 126 and 137 – all operated by Addax Petroleum Development Nigeria Limited – were taken away and awarded to Kaztec Engineering Limited/Salvic Petroleum Resources Limited.
President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday, approved the restoration of the leases on four Oil Mining Licences to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.
SaharaReporters had reported how OMLs 123, 124, 126 and 137 – all operated by Addax Petroleum Development Nigeria Limited – were taken away and awarded to Kaztec Engineering Limited/Salvic Petroleum Resources Limited.
The consortium, (KEL/Salvic), is owned by oil magnate, Emeka Offor, who is a close ally of the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, Buhari’s nephew, Mamman Daura and the Director of the Department of Petroleum Resources, Auwalu Sarki.
The decision to hurriedly sell the OMLs was conveyed in a letter signed by the Director of the Department of Petroleum Resources, the industry’s regulatory agency in a matter of three days, leading to the Easter holiday weekend, a process which is quite unusual.
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“Kaztec belongs to Emeka Offor; the Minister, Auwalu Sarki and Mamman Daura are all involved in the illegal deal. So also in the marginal field, Emeka Offor used three different names to get a lucrative field. He used Naphatha Petechemical’s name to get 91 per cent of Abiala filed, Starcrest to get 41.64 per cent of Atamba field and Naphtha to get 11 per cent of Egbolom field.
“Addax owes the Federal Government over $1.4 billion in tax and they have been in court cases since the minister decided to cancel and give it free to Emeka Offor.
“Offor is a close ally of the minister and he sponsored Sarki. Sarki was an Assistant Director and got promoted to director when the late Chief of Staff was outside the country,” a top presidential source had to SaharaReporters.
“Just recently too, the DPR and the minister went against the approval of the President to award OML 110 that originally belonged to Cavendish Petroleum, due to the non-payment of renewal fee of $2million, to Bua Abdulsamad.
“The President in November 2020 through reference noSH/COS/24/A/9514 directed that DPR should return the block back to Cavendish, provided they pay within 90 days effective November 9. Instead of advising Cavendish, the minister through DPR awarded the block to Bua.”
In a statement on Friday, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said the President had directed the DPR to retract the letter of revocation of the leases to Kaztec Engineering Limited/Salvic Petroleum Resources Limited.
A source in the presidency however told SaharaReporters that three top people in the oil sector met Buhari and explained how Sylvia and Sarki deceived him.
“In line with the current administration’s commitment to the rule of law, fairness and enabling a stable business climate for investment, President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the restoration of the leases on OMLs 123, 124, 126 and 137 to the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, which is in production sharing contract with Addax Petroleum, a company wholly owned by Government of the People’s Republic of China on the blocks. The leases belonging to the Federation were revoked on March 30, 2021,” a statement signed on behalf of the President by Shehu read.
“This development reaffirms the commitment of President Buhari to the rule of law and sanctity of contracts.
“While directing the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR to retract the letter of revocation of the leases, the President also directed NNPC to utilise contractual provisions to resolve issues in line with the extant provisions of the Production Sharing Contract arrangement between NNPC and Addax.
“The restoration of the blocks to NNPC will boost the organisation’s portfolio, thereby making the Corporation to, in the long run, boost its crude oil production and in turn increase the revenue it generates to the Federation Account.”