The House of Representatives has asked the management of Addax Petroleum Exploration Nigeria Limited to present evidence of investment claims, royalties’ payments as well as other documents to back its claims.
This followed the appearance of some officials of the company before the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum (Upstream), investigating the controversies trailing the revocation of the company’s Oil Mining Licence (OML) of its four wells.
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The officials, who gave a rundown of their business relationship with Sinopec, said the decision taken by the government has jeopardized their long-term investments over the years.
Speaking, a representative of Addax Company, Engr Tunji Maiyaki, said the firm has invested a technical cost of over $10.4bn since 2009.
According to him, the company has also paid $7.8bn in tax, royalties, education tax and other taxes aside various corporate social responsibilities interventions.
He noted that the company has maintained its status as a contractor and not the licensee in the agreement binding the operations of the revoked oil wells.
After their submissions and responses to questions on contentious issues from members of the committee, chairman of the committee, Musa Sarkin Adar, demanded that the company submit all relevant documents related to its relationship with Sinopec as well as evidence of funds spent and taxes paid over the years.
It would be recalled that the federal government had revoked the Oil Mining Licences of 123, 124, 126 and 137 oil wells over Addax’s alleged breach of an Article in the Petroleum Act.
During his appearance before the Musa Sarkin Adar-led committee at its earlier sitting, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, said the federal government acted within the law in the revocation of the OMLs.
According to him, the president acted on the recommendation of the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, which was based on the fact that the oil assets were not optimally developed as required.
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