By Mike Abba
.Speaker Dogara
Nigeria’s House of Representatives Committee on Oil and Gas, has threatened to issue warrant of arrest on 10 oil firms for failing to remit over $250 million into government treasury as required by law.
Those affected are Managing Directors of Aiteo Energy, Neconde Energy, Frontier Energy and other seven indigenous oil companies.
The House Committee said the concerned firms CEOs risk having arrest warrant on them if they fail to appear before it to account for unaccounted $ 250million to government treasury.
The disclosure was made by the Committee Chairman, Jerigbe Agom, at the committee’s sitting in Lagos during investigation into unaccounted funds into government treasury,
The Committee also ordered the Managing Director of the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) to appear before it in Abuja next Tuesday to explain why OML 119 field is under-producing by yielding 5,000 barrels despite its capacity to deliver beyond that.
He also said that a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), namely Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) failed to remit the $10million accrued debt in line with the agreement it reached with another government regulatory agency, Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).
Agom expressed displeasure that the company boss had shunned the Committee’s invitations on many occasions asking him to appear before it to explain the alleged infraction.
Agom, who took a swipe at the NNPC group managing director, Maikantu Baru, for treating his committee’s sittings with levity, wondered how the GMD whose efforts should be instrumental to government drive in blocking revenue leakage in the oil and gas sector should turn down his committee’s invitations with impunity.
He also spoke on ExxonMobil Nigeria’s Gas-To-Liquid project, noting that the project was illegal because it had no licence from the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).
However, the ExxonMobil management told the panel that the company approached the DPR several times on the Gas-To-Liquid project but was rebuffed, noting that the company might proceed to arbitration panel for the resolution of the issue.
Offering explanations on the issues, Deputy Director, Planning, DPR, Folashade Odunuga, said International Oil Companies((IOCs) have shown deep interest to pay their debts to the government, but was constrained by fiscal price disparity.
She however observed that the NPDC reneged on its promise to remit $10million to narrow its debt profile.
The House Committee has given the IOCS two weeks to tidy up every areas that need to be straightened in order to have seamless remittance of fund to government treasury.
