MALABU: ‘NIGERIA LOST $1.1BN TO LACK OF TRANSPARENCY’

A lack of beneficial ownership transparency in the oil and gas industry led to the loss of $1.1bn to a single deal by Nigeria, an international watchdog, Global Witness, has said in a new report. 

The report stated that in Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola, lucrative oil and mining assets worth $4bn were awarded to companies with hidden owners, thereby diverting vast resource revenues to unknown private pockets, adding that in the Republic of Congo, a company whose beneficiaries remained uncertain had recently received lucrative stakes in several oil fields.

Read more @ Punch Online

‘IOCS UNDERMINING LOCAL CONTENT ACT’

THE Federal Government’s drive to involve local oil firms in the oil and gas sector is being thwarted by some oil majors that are bent on maintaining the status quo and denying indigenous companies their place as enshrined in the Nigerian Local Content Law, The Nation has gathered.

The  Act, which became operational in 2010, gave Nigerian oil companies the leverage to be given first consideration in the award of contracts in virtually every area in the sector, including oil blocks, oil field licences, oil lifting licences,  in addition to being considered for award of contracts in all projects for which they have demonstrable competences and proven capability  in the oil and gas industry

Read more @ The Nation

NNPC OPPOSES SHELL’S ASSET WINNERS’ PLEA TO OPERATE OIL FIELDS

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) may have rejected the plea by prospective winners of the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) $5 billion assets to operate some of the oil fields.

The assets include the Oil Mining Lease (OML) 29 and the 97-kilometre Nembe Creek oil pipeline. Shell, which is the operator of the oil fields, has sold its 30 per cent equity stake in each of them to new owners that would be unveiled soon.


Read more @ New Telegraph