By Ignatius Okorocha
The Senate Committee on ethics, privileges and public petitions, on Thursday, mandated the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission ( NUPRC ), to restore the Atala Marginal Oil field ( OML 46) to its former owners.
The Oil field, which was originally owned by the trio of Bayelsa Oil Company Limited (BOCL), Hardy Oil Nigeria Limited (HONL) and Century Exploration and Production Limited, was erroneously reallocated to Halkin Exploration and Production Company Limited (Halkin E&P), through a letter dated 7th July, 2021 by the then regulatory agency, Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), over alleged inability to bring the Atala Field to production.
But President Muhammadu Buhari, in October 2020, in response to the appeal by the Marginal Field Operators Group (MFOG), directed the immediate “reinstatement of the ten revoked Marginal Fields licences, on a discretionary basis, to qualified companies with consideration given to the previous operators of the respective fields, subject to the demonstration of technical/financial capacity and payment of applicable Good and Valuable Consideration (GVC).”
Despite the President’s Order, the DPR, (now NUPRC), reallocated the Atala Oil field to Halkin Exploration and Production Limited which was not among the previous operators, while it returned the other nine to original owners.
Irked by the flagrant disobedience to the President’s Order, one of the original owners, Hardy Oil Nigeria Limited, through a petition signed by Sir Daniel Chukwudozie, urged the Nigerian Senate to intervene, by prevailing on the regulatory agency to comply with Buhari’s Order.
Appearing before the Senate Committee last Friday, 30th September, 2022, the Executive Commissioner, Economic Relation and Strategies of NUPRC, Dr. Kelechi Ofoegbu, made representations on behalf of both his agency and the beneficiary of the Oil field, Halkin.
He was subsequently asked to appear before the Committee on Thursday, to show written evidence of how President Buhari, who also doubles as Minister of Petroleum, instructed that the Atala Oil field should be reallocated to Halkin.
But neither the NUPRC nor the Halkin Exploration and Production Company Limited showed up at the resumed hearing on Thursday, while Barrister Ike Onwuchuluba made appearance on behalf of th petitioner, Hardy Oil Nigeria Limited.
Pronouncing the resolution of the Senate’s Committee on Thursday, the Chairman, Senator Ayo Akinyelure (Ondo Central), frowned at the total disregard for the Order of President Buhari that the Atala Oil field be reallocated to the original owners.
The Committee also expressed disappointment over the non appearance of both NUPRC and the beneficiary, Halkin Oil during Thursday’s hearing.
“We have invited them severally and again, they have not been able to come before Nigerians and prove that the allocation of Atala Oil to Halkin is justified before the law and before humans.
“The position of this particular committee in the last sitting was that, we want the NUPRC to provide evidence before this committee today, to inform our decision on whether to support the position of NUPRC or not.
“The Nigerian Senate has asked the NUPRC to provide a written evidence that Mr. President reversed his own order. It has not been heard anywhere allover the world that, when Mr. President gives a presidential Order, a civil servant would go ahead and reverse it without a written permission from Mr. President.
“So, we are not convinced by the report of the NUPRC and we make bold to say the NUPRC has been misinformed, to allocate Atala Oil to a private limited liability company, when Mr. President had given a presidential Order that they should give considerations to former owners of ten Oil fields. Out of these ten, nine were considered, but the one of Atala is being taken away from the owners.
“Today we are here, but we can’t see NUPRC, we can’t even see the MD of Halkin Oil to show us the President’s Order that reversed his earlier Order.
“This committee therefore, resolved as follows: that the revocation and allocation of Atala Oil is hereby declared void; that the Atala Oil should be returned to its original owners, in line with the Presidential Order; that the NUPRC should carry out the Presidential Order immediately”, Senator Akinyelure said.
To ensure immediate compliance, the Committee vowed to submit its report to the Senate plenary and follow up with the Senate’s resolution to the regulatory agency.
