Chukwueke: Some Oil Blocks Awarded After Bid Rounds
From Stanley Nkwazema in Abuja, 07.29.2008
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Suspended Director of the Department of Petroleum Resources, Mr Tony Chukwueke, yesterday admitted that some oil blocks were allocated after the bid rounds.
Chukwueke, while answering a question asked by the 26-man House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) oil blocks awards, said "let me say that an offer will precede an award. Yes, there were some awards which were made after the bid rounds at the discretion of the Minister and we take instructions from the Minister, The Minister has the powers under the Act to make those awards."
He also said "the award of OPL 236 to Oando was on the instruction of the Minister. We gave out what we found in the files and what we didn't find in the files, we can't give you. We did not find some of the documents in the file."
The committee had frowned at the fact that while some companies who were lawfully qualified for the bid rounds were excluded, with most of those that won up to seven blocks having the same promoters.
Chuwkwueke said "all is aimed at improving the local content partnership. Nigerian companies complained and the minister asked them to form consortiums during the road shows and the bid conferences. 369 companies applied and the committee did not have the opportunity of going to the CAC to verify records of all the companies. We decided that those without identities be disqualified. But the companies that emerged where those of the LC vehicles that the ministries merged to be equal to the number of blocks that we had. They were 45 in number at the end of the day.
"When we got the qualified list from the Ministry, we did not question it. If we found out that some companies or names were repeated, that is where the contradiction came from. What I can say is that when we carried out our variation, we sent a list to the Ministry and they came back with the same lists.
"If you look at the data they supplied to us, you would see that the information did not indicate this multiple directors and we are just discovering that and will take it up as soon as possible. The DPR is not independent and relies on directives that emanates from the Ministry that supervises the department. The LC vehicles were chosen by the operators after they won the blocks. We opened the envelopes and also opened the second envelopes to check names of local companies. If you look at the Petrobras and Statoil blocks, they chose their local content. The same thing goes for ASK which emerged after a merger,"
On the bid rounds proper he said, "for the 2005 bid rounds, iwe ensured that all the PSC that were signed were paid. There was also a letter of Credit on some blocks and a committee was set up by the Federal Government to further give them time to settle the debts. DPR was asked to comply with the directive."
On the protests by Starcrest Investments Limited against Starcrest Energy Nigeria, Chief Emefo Etudo, a director of the company alleged that "about 10 persons, powerful individuals connived and cornered $35 million. They were able to seize an oil block. We have a record of money that exchanged hands. They used one company which is non-existent. They used funny names to seize OPL 229 in August 6, 2006," Emefo said.
He alleged that it was Chuekwueke who offered them OPL 291 and made another offer in the name of Starcrest Nigeria Energy, while " the paymaster was Addax who in June 2006 paid $13million without taking part in the 2006 bid round. They paid for the block they did not bid for. One Iliasu from the EFCC was the IPO, they used $35million of other country's money," he said and asked the committee to "summon the bankers to deal in Port Harcourt you will get further facts on the internet. The company was not in operation when the Right of First refusal was purportedly granted. Without going through the document we sent, the new Minister of State Energy (Petroleum) Mr Odein Ajumogobia said we did not have a case. He, therefore, called on the House to direct the EFCC to forward excerpts of the investigation on the petition by Starcrest Investments against Addax and others involved in the allegation.
Chukwueke also told the committee that payments were not effected or received on OPL 723, 228, 234, 235,274,275,278,281,287,288,289, 290 and 252 in 2005 bid rounds because the PSCs were yet to be signed, pleading that he be allowed to change his earlier statement.
The committee also discovered that in the 2005 bid rounds, while $2,629,275,667 was recorded as income, only $1,71,246,277billion was actually paid into various accounts by the DPR and some of the companies like Oando paying in naira while others made payments in foreign currency.
The investigations continues today at the Conference Room of the House of Representatives new complex
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