Former Minister for Petroleum
Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, has described the narratives of
her former group managing directors, GMDs, Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation, NNPC, with regard to the ongoing legislative probe of
the oil swap and OPA deals as fabricated tissues of lies.
The embattled former minister’s denial comes as she strongly refuted
claims that she approved $24 billion for Renewal of the Crude
Oil/Refined Products Exchange Agreement, otherwise called oil swap deals
without contracts.
From the inception of the deal in 2009, Federal Government was meant
to realise about $1.82 million per 60,000 barrels per day, bpd, against
the then losses of $1.47 million being recorded by the corporation.
It is uncertain if all the proceeds from the deal were remitted to the federation account.
During their appearances before the legislators last week, Mr. Austin
Oniwon, who was GMD, NNPC, from May 17, 2010 to June 12, 2012, and Mr.
Andrew Yakubu, June 12, 2012, to August 2, 2014, said Alison-Madueke had
granted them approvals for contracts extension.
In a statement meant to set the records straight yesterday, she
rejected some newspaper and online reports, which claimed that she
granted an “extension” instead of ‘Approval for the Renewal of
Contracts’ for the swap arrangements.
Alison-Madueke, who is currently undergoing extensive cancer
treatment in London, was quoted as describing the latest attack as
“fabricated tissues of lies deviously concocted to sustain the
escalating evil narratives against her person.”
Contracts approvals
The embattled former minister, who spoke through her spokesman, Mr.
Clem Aguiyi, recalled that she gave the following approvals for renewal
of contract: one-year term each for both Messrs Trafigura Beheer BV, and
Messrs Societe Ivoirienne de Raffinage (SIR), in August 2010; two-year
term in August 2011 for the same companies, and one-year term to NNPC
subsidiary, Duke Oil, in January 2011.
She added: “Two other approvals were consequently sought by the GMD,
NNPC, the first of these on August 29, 2014, seeking to ratify all three
aforementioned approvals, which had apparently variously expired during
the course of 2013.”
She said she approved all three “in view of the criticality of the
situation. Expiry of those terms was put at December 31, 2014, following
assurances to the minister that the contractual obligations of the
parties to NNPC had, in fact, been fully met, despite the regrettable
lapse in renewal time.”
In her narrative, the lapses in expiration to renewal dates were put
at seven months for Duke Oil, 10 for SIR, and 12 months for Trafigura.
OPA approvals
Furthermore, Alison-Madueke recalled that she had given fresh
approvals for Offshore Processing Agreements, OPA, on October 28, 2014,
following the recommendation of the then Group Managing Director, GMD,
NNPC.
The approvals included a new term of two years commencing from
January 1, 2015, for Sahara Energy Resources Ltd; Aiteo Energy and Duke
Oil.
According to her, “NNPC strongly recommended and outlined the
benefits of the OPA over the swaps and put forward the case for
migration from the OPA and crude exchange (SWAP) contracts to OPAs
fully.
“NNPC posited that the ‘experienced benefits of the OPA to the
Federation’ would be much greater. All approvals were due process-driven
and were only given by the Minister, following formal statutory written
requests, which contained the technical basis for the renewal and were
sent to the Minister by the GMD-NNPC, as is the normal practice.
“NNPC had clearly requested for the approval of the Minister for
‘Renewal of the Crude Oil – Refined Products Exchange Agreement’ and
‘Renewal of Offshore Processing Agreement’ on all the various occasions
outlined earlier in this press release.”
Her spokesman further noted that “whereas, it is the Minister’s
responsibility to either give or refuse ‘approval’, it was not within
her purview as Minister to draft, initiate or conclude the processes of
signing the final contracts.
“It is the statutory responsibility of NNPC to ensure that all
technical areas are duly covered and all requisite due process
parameters are duly implemented.”
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