Niger Delta crude oil blocks: The NATIONAL CAKE of Northern Nigeria Oligarchs
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| Niger Delta crude oil blocks: The NATIONAL CAKE of Northern Nigeria Oligarchs |
The process of sharing Nigeria’s oil block (national cake) is as
fraudulent now as when Ibrahim Babangida started the process of
discretionary allocation of oil blocks to indigenous firms.
Discretionary allocation of oil blocks entails that a president can
reward a mistress who performs wonderfully with an oil block with
capacity for cumulative yield of over $20 billion dollars without
recourse to any process outside of manhood attachments.
Babangida, Abacha, Abdulsalami and Obasanjo awarded discretionary oil
blocks to friends, associates, family members, party chieftains,
security chiefs and all categories of bootlickers, spokespersons and
cult members without any laid down procedures.
The recipients of such oil blocks will get funds from ever willing
offshore financiers and partners to graciously settle the benefactors,
the awarders, facilitators and the Commander-in-Chief through fronts.
These settlements mostly paid into foreign accounts runs into hundreds
of millions of dollars according to the potential yield of the block.
Sometimes, the awarder (sharer of national cake and direct
intermediaries) demand additional stakes in the bidding company. The
awarder sends fronts as part of the directorship and management of the
bidding firms without leaving a link to them. That is how the oil block
national cake is distributed to a few Nigerians.
Signature bonuses which are paid when an investor successfully bids,
wins and signs agreement with the petroleum ministry, running into tens
of millions and sometimes hundreds of millions of naira ,is often waived
off. There is actually no waiver; rather a diversion of what would have
been paid to government t coffers is paid into private purse as
appreciation gifts. That is why those in the Petroleum Ministry dread
retirement as though it signifies going to hell fire. No matter how
little your influence, something substantial must enter your hands
especially in hard currency. The nation loses billions of dollars in
diverted revenue whenever any round of auction occurs.
OML 110 with high yield OBE oil fields was given Cavendish Petroleum
owned by Alhaji Mai Daribe, the Borno Patriarch in 1996 by Sanni Abacha.
OBE oil field has estimated over 500 million barrels of oil. In
layman’s language and using average benchmark of $100 dollars per
barrel, translates to $50 billion dollars worth of oil reserve. When you
remove the taxes, royalties and sundry duties worth about 60% of the
reserve payable over time you get about $20billion dollars worth of oil
in the hands of a family.
OPL 246 was awarded to SAPETRO, a company owned by General Theophilus
Danjuma, by Sanni Abacha in 1998. Akpo condensate exports about 300,000
barrels of crude daily.
OML 112 and OML 117 were awarded to AMNI International Petroleum
Development Company owned by Colonel Sanni Bello in 1999. Sanni Bello is
an inlaw to Abdulsalami Abubakar, former Head of State of Nigeria.
OML 115, OLDWOK Field and EBOK field was awarded to Alhaji Mohammed
Indimi from Niger State. Indimi is an inlaw to former Military President
Ibrahim Babangida.
OML 215 is operated by Nor East Petroleum Limited owned by Alhaji Saleh Mohammed Gambo.
OML 108 is operated by Express Petroleum Company Limited is owned by Alhaji Aminu Dantata.
OML II3 allocated to Yinka Folawiyo Pet Ltd is owned by Alhaji W.I. folawiyo.
ASUOKPU/UMUTU marginal oil fields is operated by Seplat Petroleum.
Seplat is owned by Prince Nasiru Ado Bayero, cousin to the Central Bank
Governor Lamido Sanusi. This oil field has the capacity of 300,000
barrels of oil daily. This translates to $30million dollars daily at
average benchmark of $100 dollars per barrel. Deducting all sundry
taxes, royalties etc , this field can yield $12billion dollars daily for
the owners.
Intel owned by Atiku, Yarádua and Ado Bayero has substantial stakes in
Nigeria’s oil exploration industry both in Nigeria and Principe and Sao
Tome. AMNI owns two oil blocks OML 112 and OML 117 which it runs Afren
plc and Vitol has substantial stakes in oil blocks. Afren plc is
operating EBOK oil fields in OML 67. Vitol lifts 300,000 barrels of
Nigerian oil daily. Rilwanu Lukman, former OPEC Chairman has stakes in
all these named three companies.
OPL 245 was awarded to Malabu Oil& Gas Company by Sanni Abacha. Dan
Etete, Abacha’s oil minister owns Malabu Oil. In 2000, Vice President
Atiku Abubakar convinced Obasanjo to revoke
OPL 245 given to Malabu Oil. Etete had earlier rejected Atiku’s demand
for substantial stakes in the high yield OPL 245 and it attracted the
venom of Ota Majesty who revoked the licence. However, in 2006, Obasanjo
had mercy on Dan Etete and gave him back his oil block worth over $20
billion dollars.
OPL 289 and OPL 233 was awarded during Obasanjo era to Peter Odili
fronts, Cleanwater Consortium, consisting of Clenwater Refinery and
RivGas Petroleum and Gas Company. Odili’s brother in law, Okey Ezenwa
manages the consortium as Vice Chairman.
OPL 286 is managed by Focus Energy in partnership with BG Group, a
British oil concern. Andy Uba has stakes in Focus Energy and his modus
operandi is such that you can never see his name in any listings yet he
controls OPL and OML through proxies.
OPL 291 was awarded to Starcrest Energy Nigeria Limited, owned by Emeka
Offor by Obasanjo . Immediately after the award, Starcrest sold the oil
block to Addax Petroleum Development Company Limited (ADDAX) Addax paid
Sir Emeka Offor a farming fee of $35million dollars and still paid the
signature bonus to the government. Emeka Offor still retains stake in
ADDAX operations in Nigeria.
Mike Adenuga’s Conoil is the oldest indigenous oil exploration industry
in Nigeria. Conoil has six oil blocks and exports above 200,000 barrels
of crude daily. The oil block national cake sharing fiesta could take
twists according to the mood of the Commander-in –Chief at the
particular time. In 2006, Obasanjo revoked OPL 246 which Abacha gave to
Danjuma because he refused to support the tenure elongation bid of the
Ota Majesty. In 2000, Obasanjo had earlier revoked OPL 241 given to Dan
Etete under the advice Atiku. However, when the Obasanjo-Atiku faceoff
started, the Ota Majesty made a u-turn and handed back the oil block to
Etete.
During the time of Late President Yarádua , a panel headed by Olusegun
Ogunjana was set up to investigate the level of transparency in the
award of oil blocks. The panel recommended that 25 oil blocks awarded by
the Obasanjo be revoked because the manner they were obtained failed to
meet the best practices in the industry. Sadiq Mahmood, permanent
secretary in the Ministry of Petroleum endorsed the report to then
president with all its recommendations. As a result of the report
Yarádua revoked eleven oil blocks.
In April 2011 Mike Adenuga attempted to buy Shell’s OML 30 for $1.2
billion dollars. The then Minister for Petroleum and Nigeria’s most
powerful woman refused the sale of the OML30 to Adenuga citing national
interest. This block was later sold to Heritage Oil for $800 million
dollars eleven months later.
This oil block business is so lucrative that Danjuma’s Sapetro divested
of its investment in Akpo condensate for $1billion dollars. This
business is second to none in Nigeria. That is why any attempt to
investigate the activities in this sector will always be futile. The
money is so much that they give bribes in millions of dollars. A
birthday gift or child naming gift from an oil block owner to a
government official could be as paltry as $2million dollars, and if the
official’s father died, the condolence gift could reach mere $3 million
dollars. When they want to bribe legislators, it is in millions of
dollars and any ongoing investigation ends within weeks. They are so
confident that with excess money they can buy up Nigeria and they are
succeeding. In the name of competitive bidding, which Obasanjo
introduced in 2005, Officials bring companies overnight and through
processes best described as secretive and voodooist they award blocks to
party faithful, fronts and phoney companies.
During the third term agenda, Obasanjo was deceived that the allocation
of oil block to party faithfuls is to fund the third term agenda. With
the failure of the third term, the beneficiaries went home with their
fortunes and thanked God or Allah for buttering their bread. Senator
Andy Uba co ordinate the award of the last rounds of oil block by
Obasanjo in 2005 and 2007. The then minister of petroleum, Edwin Daukoru
was a mere errand boy who took instructions from the presidential aide.
The regime of President Goodluck is not showing any signs of changing
the status quo. Controversies have trailed the activities of the then
Minister of Petroleum and many players in the Industry accuse her of
demanding stakes from every oil deal. It is hoped that President
Goodluck Jonathan will remember his transformational promise to
Nigerians and endeavour to face the hawks in the oil industry. The angst
in the air is so much that if this monster of illegal allocation of oil
block is not addressed, the much touted revolution could begin all of a
sudden and all who condoned this illegality at the expense of hungry
Nigerians may have nowhere to hide.
The religious leaders should tell these oil block beneficiaries,
awarders, fronts, brokers and all involved in short changing the
Nigerian people to find means or returning all these back to the
Nigerian people, through massive development projects. The voice of
impoverished Nigerians is crying daily and if care is not taken the God
who delivered Nigeria from Abacha dark days will visit them with
calamities untold. With the rot in this oil block awarding system and
other loot all over the Nigerian nation, something worse than revolution
may happen.
-Naij
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