No law breached, Sylva defends revocation of Addax oil blocs

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, has maintained that no law was breached in the revocation of the Oil Mining Licences (OML) of Addax Petroleum and re-awarding it to other companies.

The minister who appeared before the House Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) on Thursday said, the revocation was in line with the powers given to President Muhammadu Buhari as the Minister of Petroleum Resources in Article 24 of the Petroleum Act.

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Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation is to appear before the committee in two weeks, but lawmakers say they will invite President Muhammadu Buhari—as the minister of petroleum resources—if NNPC fails to appear as it has done in the past.

Sylva defended the revocation using portions of the Act that give the minister power to “revoke any oil prospecting licence or Oil Mining Licence” in the event of clear breaches by a “Licence” and other reasons specified in the Act.

Sylva informed that the said assets have not been optimally managed, adding that they were producing 130,000 barrels per day before acquisition by Addax which fell to 25,000 barrels per day.

He said the federal government should have taken the assets long ago as there were clear mismanagement issue as regards the operations of the OML.

He further noted that the action taken was prompted by the memo written to the President by the Attorney General of the Federation saying that, the assets are not being managed in line with the country’s oil laws.

The minister added that the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) was intimated on whether Addax has managed the assets well, after which the DPR in its report confirmed the Attorney General’s allegation.

Sylva however faulted NNPC’s attempt in its written Memo to negotiate Addax’s exit as well as to renegotiate the entry of the new parties.

After the minister’s submission, the chairman of the committee, Rep. Musa Sarkin Adar berated the NNPC for its blatant disregard to invitations of the parliament.

He said NNPC has on many occasions ignored invitations by the committee as well as other committees including the House to provide documents or clarify issues.

He, therefore, announced that the committee has given the NNPC as well as other invited parties to appear before the committee.

Rep. Sarkin Adar said, if NNPC failed to appear as it had done in the past, they will invite President Muhammadu Buhari as the Minister of Petroleum Resources to appear before the committee.

“We know as a law-abiding President, he will come. Then Nigerians will know that, NNPC has disregarded and refused to appear before us and the President was invited,” he said.

It could be recalled that, the Director, Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) Sarki Auwalu announced the revocation of Addax’s OMLs 123, 124, 126 and 137 few days ago.

The licences were awarded to Kaztec Engineering Limited/Salvic Petroleum Resources Limited (KEL/Slavic) Consortium which was approved by President Muhammadu Buhari.