Senate Goes After 6 Oil Firms, Probes $21bn Unremitted Funds

The Nigerian Senate has directed its committees on Petroleum Resources Upstream, Judiciary and Legal Matters, and Finance, to investigate alleged non-remittance of $21 billion to the federal government’s coffers by seven international oil firms.

The committees are to investigate ENI, Cheveron, Total and South Atlantic Petroleum, Shell, ExxonMobil, Addax for allegedly refusing to remit the said sum to the federal government’s account over a period of 20 years.

The senate resolved to investigate the oil companies following a motion moved by Senator Ifeanyi Ubah, the Vice Chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources.

In the motion co-sponsored by 14 other senators, Ubah claimed that the oil firms had refused to honour the provisions of the Deep Offshore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contract Act.

Ubah noted that the Act was meant to regulate the sharing of additional revenue between the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the various oil companies.

The senator said, the PSC Act Cap D3 LFN 2004 (PSC Act) which became effective on January 1, 1993, ought to be reviewed after 15 years.

Ubah said non-review of the legislation caused the Nigerian government to lose as much as $21 billion over a 20-year period.

He urged the senate to investigate reasons for the failure to review the provisions of the PSC Act.

The senate consequently resolved to, “Mandate the Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources Upstream in conjunction with the Committees on Judiciary and Finance to investigate the reasons for the failure to review the salient provisions of the PSC Act, identify the best fiscal regime for the PSCs and review the provisions of the PSC Act to ensure that the share of the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) in the additional revenue is adjusted in accordance with the provisions of the Act.”