Yemisi Izuora.
The House of Representatives Committee on Oil and Gas , has issued a two weeks ultimatum to ten indigenous oil companies to remit $250million oil royalty to the coffers of the Federal government.
The companies include, Aiteo Group,Dubri Oil Limited Atlas Energy,Oriental Energy Limited,Express Petroleum,WalterSmith Oil Limited and Neconde Group.
Jerigbe Agom,Chairman of the committee said at its ongoing sitting on the probe of unremitted funds in the industry, that Nigeria can no longer condone unbecoming acts of the operators which are capable of strangulating the nation’s oil and gas industry.
He said his committee would have no choice than to wield the big sticks on the companies that refuse to meet the deadline as part of its mandate to ensure sanity in the nation’s oil and gas industry.
Meanwhile,members of the committee say the Department of Petroleum Resources(DPR) is not proactive enough to ensure that indigenous oil companies comply with rules in the nation’s oil and gas sector.
They wondered why the regulatory body can not wield the big sticks on oil companies that fail to pay their oil royalties when evidence abounds that they owed the federal government.
They also accused gas companies in the country of not revealing the accurate figures of the quantity of the gas produced and flared
The lawmakers resolved to pay on-site visit to the gas companies at a later date to crosscheck claims of their gas production and flare.
The Managing Directors of the companies said they got the invite very late.
They also complained of harsh business environment like high cost of production and interest rate which also explains why owners of marginal fields in the country cannot operate the fields.
According to them,the the Federal government has no reason to grant them requisite tax holidays with a view to boosting their business and opening the nation’s oil and gas sector for investment prospects .