It’s more news the North wants GEJ out
of the way, so their licenses can be
renewed cos most of them are expiring
from 2016 upwards.
Monumental injustice is being
perpetrated to the people of Niger Delta
on whose soil the oil was found.
These people constitutes the main
opposition to President Goodluck
Jonathan today. Please Read on:
(1) 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.
(2) 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.
(3) 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.
(4) NOML 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.
(5) 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.
(6) OML 215 is operated by Nor East
Petroleum Limited owned by Alhaji Saleh
Mohammed Gambo.
(7) OML 108 is operated by Express
Petroleum Company Limited is owned by
Alhaji Aminu Dantata.
(cool OML II3 allocated to Yinka
Folawiyo Pet Ltd is owned by Alhaji W.I.
folawiyo
(9)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 .
(10)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.
(11) 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.
(12) 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.
(13) 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.
(14) 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.
(15)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.
(16) 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.
(17)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.
(18)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.
(19) In April 2011 Mike Adenuga
attempted to buy Shell’s OML 30 for
$1.2 billion dollars. The 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.
(20) 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. They collect
gratifications running into hundreds of
millions of dollars which is paid into
offshore account and the nation loses
billions of dollars of revenue to private
pockets.
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 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.
The regime of President Goodluck is not
showing any signs of changing the
status quo. Controversies have trailed
the activities of the 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.
Culled from How Babangida, Abubakar,
Abacha, Obasanjo Shared Nigeria’s Oil
Blocks –
Written by Obinna Akukwe
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