In line with the dwindling prices in the oil market, this article about the Nigerian oil blocs business shrewd in mystery is again brought to the fore; Abdul Kuku gives us an insight by exposing some of the bosses in the oil business in Nigeria.
The oil block business is so lucrative that Danjuma’s Sapetro divested
of its investment in Akpo condensate for $1billion dollars. The business
is second to none in Nigeria. That is why any attempt to investigate
the activities in this sector will always be futile. The money is so
much that they give bribes in millions of dollars. A birthday gift or
child naming gift from an oil block owner to a government official could
be as paltry as $2million dollars, and if the official’s father died,
the condolence gift could reach mere $3 million dollars.
When they want to bribe legislators, it is in millions of dollars and
any ongoing investigation ends within weeks. They are so confident that
with excess money they can buy up Nigeria and they are succeeding OML
110 with high yield OBE oil fields was given Cavendish Petroleum owned
by Alhaji Mai Daribe, the Borno Patriarch in 1996 by Sanni Abacha. OBE
oil field has estimated over 500 million barrels of oil. In layman’s
language and using average benchmark of $100 dollars per barrel,
translates to $50 billion dollars worth of oil reserve. When you remove
the taxes, royalties and sundry duties worth about 60% of the reserve
payable over time you get about $20billion dollars worth of oil in the
hands of a family.
OPL 246 was awarded to SAPETRO, a company owned by General Theophilus
Danjuma, by Sanni Abacha in 1998. Akpo condensate exports about 300,000
barrels of crude daily.
NOML 112 and OML 117 were awarded to AMNI International Petroleum
Development Company owned by Colonel Sanni Bello in 1999. Sanni Bello is
an inlaw to Abdulsalami Abubakar, former Head of State of Nigeria.
OML 115, OLDWOK Field and EBOK field was awarded to Alhaji Mohammed
Indimi from Niger State. Indimi is an inlaw to former Military President
Ibrahim Babangida.
OML 215 is operated by Nor East Petroleum Limited owned by Alhaji Saleh Mohammed Gambo.
OML 108 is operated by Express Petroleum Company Limited is owned by Alhaji Aminu Dantata.
OML II3 allocated to Yinka Folawiyo Pet Ltd is owned by Alhaji W.I. folawiyo
ASUOKPU/ UMUTU marginal oil fields is operated by Seplat Petroleum.
Seplat is owned by Prince Nasiru Ado Bayero, cousin to the Central Bank
Governor Lamido Sanusi. This oil field has the capacity of 300,000
barrels of oil daily. This translates to $30million dollars daily at
average benchmark of $100 dollars per barrel. Deducting all sundry
taxes, royalties etc , this field can yield $12billion dollars daily for
the owners .
Intel owned by Atiku, Yarádua and Ado Bayero has substantial stakes in
Nigeria’s oil exploration industry both in Nigeria and Principe and Sao
Tome.
AMNI owns two oil blocks OML 112 and OML 117 which it runs Afren plc and
Vitol has substantial stakes in oil blocks. Afren plc is operating EBOK
oil fields in OML 67. Vitol lifts 300,000 barrels of Nigerian oil
daily. Rilwanu Lukman, former OPEC Chairman has stakes in all these
named three companies.
OPL 245 was awarded to Malabu Oil& Gas Company by Sanni Abacha. Dan
Etete, Abacha’s oil minister owns Malabu Oil. In 2000, Vice President
Atiku Abubakar convinced Obasanjo to revoke OPL 245 given to Malabu Oil.
Etete had earlier rejected Atiku’s demand for substantial stakes in the
high yield OPL 245 and it attracted the venom of Ota Majesty who
revoked the licence. However, in 2006, Obasanjo had mercy on Dan Etete
and gave him back his oil block worth over $20 billion dollars.
OPL 289 and OPL 233 was awarded during Obasanjo era to Peter Odili
fronts, Cleanwater Consortium, consisting of Clenwater Refinery and
RivGas Petroleum and Gas Company. Odili’s brother in law, Okey Ezenwa
manages the consortium as Vice Chairman.
OPL 286 is managed by Focus Energy in partnership with BG Group, a
British oil concern. Andy Uba has stakes in Focus Energy and his modus
operandi is such that you can never see his name in any listings yet he
controls OPL and OML through proxies
OPL 291 was awarded to Starcrest Energy Nigeria Limited, owned by Emeka
Offor by Obasanjo . Immediately after the award, Starcrest sold the oil
block to Addax Petroleum Development Company Limited (ADDAX) Addax paid
Sir Emeka Offor a farming fee of $35million dollars and still paid the
signature bonus to the government. Emeka Offor still retains stake in
ADDAX operations in Nigeria.
Mike Adenuga’s Conoil is the oldest indigenous oil exploration industry
in Nigeria. Conoil has six oil blocks and exports above 200,000 barrels
of crude daily.
The oil block national cake sharing fiesta could take twists according
to the mood of the Commander-in –Chief at the particular time. In 2006,
Obasanjo revoked OPL 246 which Abacha gave to Danjuma because he refused
to support the tenure elongation bid of the Ota Majesty. In 2000,
Obasanjo had earlier revoked OPL 241 given to Dan Etete under the advice
Atiku.
However, when the Obasanjo-Atiku face off started, the Ota Majesty made a u-turn and handed back the oil block to Etete.
During the time of Late President Yarádua , a panel headed by Olusegun
Ogunjana was set up to investigate the level of transparency in the
award of oil blocks. The panel recommended that 25 oil blocks awarded by
the Obasanjo be revoked because the manner they were obtained failed to
meet the best practices in the industry. Sadiq Mahmood, permanent
secretary in the Ministry of Petroleum endorsed the report to then
president with all its recommendations . As a result of the report
Yarádua revoked eleven oil blocks.
In April 2011 Mike Adenuga attempted to buy Shell’s OML 30 for $1.2
billion dollars. The Minister for Petroleum and Nigeria’s most powerful
woman refused the sale of the OML30 to Adenuga citing national interest.
This block was later sold to Heritage Oil for $800 million dollars
eleven months later.
In the name of competitive bidding, which Obasanjo introduced in 2005,
Officials bring companies overnight and through processes best described
as secretive and voodooist they award blocks to party faithful, fronts
and phoney companies. They collect gratifications running into hundreds
of millions of dollars which is paid into an offshore account and the
nation loses billions of dollars of revenue to private pockets.
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