Don't Miss


Home   >   Business   >   Industries   >   Energy   >   House probes sale of oil blocks

House probes sale of oil blocks

By on March 7, 2015

The House of Representatives on Thursday summoned the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, over the decision of Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria to relinquish its interest in some oil blocks in Oil Mining Licence II.

She is to appear alongside the Managing Director of SPDC to explain the bidding process for the blocks.

The House noted that some “discrepancies and insider trading arrangements” within SPDC on the bidding process for the blocks had been reported.

The resolution followed a motion moved by a member from Abia State, Mr. Abonta Nkem-Abonta.

The House said it was interested in knowing whether the country’s local content law had been breached in any way or not in the ongoing bidding process.

“The House notes the circumstances surrounding Shell’s intended exit from the said blocks and recognises the need for local content and development in the oil sector. It also acknowledges the need for compliance with the Local Content Act in order to accommodate host communities in the process of bidding for oil bloc OML II, which will soon be relinquished by SPDC,” part of the motion read.

The House named Gokana and Tai (Ogoni), Oyigbo, Asa, Ukwa Oil Field (Abia) and Adoni, Opobo, Boni (Rivers) as the communities were the blocks are located.

The House “mandates the committees on Local Content, Petroleum Resources (Upstream) and Justice to invite the Minister of Petroleum Resources and the Managing Director of SPDC with a view to investigating the bidding process of the said OML II.”

In a separate resolution, the House directed its Committee on Gas Resources to investigate the non-payment of compensation for plots of land acquired in 1996 by the Nigerian Liquefied Gas in Omoku, Rivers State.

Mr. Akpodiogaga Emeseye, who moved a motion on the issue, informed the House that the company acquired 230 plots for the building of its gas transmission system.

However, he said only 25 plot owners were isolated and paid N300,000 per plot.

According to him, the owners of 205 plots are yet to get any compensation, while a promise made after 16 years of negotiations to pay N414bn has yielded no positive result.

 

[Punch]