Yemisi Izuora
President Muhammadu Buhari, has restored four oilfield licences to Addax, a company controlled by China’s Sinopec.
The decision overturned a previous revocation order from the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, which regulates the oil industry.
The restoration of the fields roughly three weeks after the Department of Petroleum Resources rescinded them was aimed to ensure “commitment to the rule of law, fairness and enabling a stable business climate for investment,” Buhari said.
“This development reaffirms the commitment of President Buhari to the rule of law and sanctity of contracts,” a statement by Buhari’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, claimed.
The statement also said it would boost Nigeria’s long-term oil production.
It said the fields would return to the original production sharing contracts between the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC and Addax.
Revoking licences for producing fields is an unusual move, made more so by the fact that DPR re-awarded the fields almost immediately to other companies, Kaztec Engineering Limited and Salvic Petroleum Resources Limited.
Of the assets in question, OML 123, OML 124, OML 126 and OML 137, three have producing fields, according to Addax’s website.
While directing the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) to retract the letter of revocation of the leases, the President also directed NNPC to utilise contractual provisions to resolve issues in line with the extant provisions of the Production Sharing Contract arrangement between the Corporation and Addax.
