Diezani Alison Madueke, Former Minister for
Petroleum resources, has refuted an accusation by former group managing
director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Austen Oniwon,
that she granted $24 billion oil swap deals without a contract during her
tenure as Petroleum Minister. Oniwon made the allegation when he appeared
before the House of Representatives ad hoc committee on Petroleum resources.
In a report released by her spokesperson, Clem
Aguiyi today February 24th, 2016, Diezani refuted the accusation and said she
will speak in due time
“Following the recommendation of the then GMD of NNPC, the minister
approved OPAs for a new term of 2 years commencing from 1st January 2015. The
entities recommended by NNPC were Sahara Energy Resources Ltd, Aiteo Energy and
Duke Oil. NNPC strongly recommended and outlined the benefits of the OPA over
the SWAPs and put forward the case for migration from the OPA and crude
exchange (SWAP) Contracts to OPAs fully. NNPC posited that the ‘experienced
benefits of the OPA to the Federation’, would be much greater. There would have
been little need to respond to this particular issue at this time considering
that the former minister is still indisposed and would have wished to be left
alone to recuperate. She will speak for herself in due time. It is nevertheless
imperative that records are set straight so that Nigerians and posterity will
know the truth. Mr. Oniwon was right when he stated that the 445000 barrels of
crude oil were the property of NNPC, bought from the federal government of
Nigeria at the prevailing rate and therefore as GMD, he did not need the
Federal Executive Councillor Presidential Approval to enter into SWAP
arrangements that will enable NNPC fulfil its statutory obligations. It was
also correct that contrary to the picture being painted in the media, not more
than 210,000 bpd out of the 445000 bpd lifted by NNPC to ensure adequate supply
and distribution of petroleum products were traded under the SWAP arrangement.
What the GMD required to execute the above was statutory approval from the
minister for the companies! Refineries chosen by NNPC to participate in the
SWAP arrangement as outlined in section 4 of the Petroleum Act and section 20
of the NNPC Act. It is however incorrect to say that the former minister gave
‘approval for extension’ unless ‘extension’ can legally be substituted for
“renewal” because what the Minister gave (and the records are there) was
approval for ‘renewal of contract’. And these approvals were given based on
letters of request received from the GMD of NNPC.” the report read
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