Reps halt planned $1 billion oil asset sale

The House of Representatives has requested that the Federal Government halt the planned $250 million sale of Oil Mining Licence 11 after it received bids of $1 billion through the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company.

The House specifically encouraged the Federal Government, in particular the NPDC, to postpone the anticipated auction and sale of the OML 11 asset until pertinent problems were handled during the session on Wednesday.

The Committee on Petroleum (Upstream) was also ordered by the House to "urgently investigate the planned auction, among other matters, and report back within four weeks."
Victor Mela, who sponsored the motion of urgent public significance that resulted in the resolutions, said that the Shell Petroleum Development Company had previously operated the oil field under OML 11 as a joint venture and that it had remained idle since the company was ejected from Ogoniland in 1993.
Mela stated that the SPDC joint venture lost its right to renew the operating license in a Court of Appeal decision from August 16, 2021, and that the OML 11 was thereafter rehabilitated and invested in an operating unit of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.

He said, “The House is worried that there are unresolved issues between the government and the host communities of Ogoni that are currently fuelling resistance and restiveness amongst the people
“The House is worried that the government is involved in under-the-table or covert arrangements to auction the OML 11 assets to Sahara Energy Limited for a paltry sum of $250m as against the $1bn offered by the SPDC. The House is concerned with the need to urgently clarify and resolve issues associated with the planned auction among other matters."


References
Punchng, 'Reps stop planned auction of $1bn oil assets' (online, 2022) <https://punchng.com/reps-stop-planned-auction-of-1bn-oil-assets/>.