Reps to probe Alison-Madueke, NNPC, Shell, others over $750m oil deals

House of Representatives is to probe Minister of Petroleum Resources, Dieziani Alison-Madueke, the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) Ltd, Atlantic Energy Drilling Concept, Septa Energy Ltd and some other entities over their alleged involvement in illegal allocation of seven oil blocs in the Niger Delta.
The loss to government from the said oil bloc deals amounts to $750 million.
The House decided to probe key players in the deals following a motion brought under Matters of Urgent National Importance by Victor Afam Ogene, who, while introducing the issue, cited Order viii, Rule 46/Rule 49 of the House to support his position. Ogene in the motion drew the attention of the House to last week’s protest staged at the National Assembly complex by representatives of oil-producing ethnic nationalities from Delta State. The protesters had alleged fraudulent allocation of some marginal oil fields, including oil mining leases (OMLs) 4, 26, 30, 34, 38, 41 and 42.
The House at the end of the debate resolved that an ad-hoc committee be raised to handle the probe. The committee is to be given four weeks to conduct its investigations and report back to the House in plenary.

House Suspends Consideration of N162bn Extra Fund for Fuel Subsidy

House of Representatives Speaker, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal has tactically stood down further consideration of the request by President Goodluck Jonathan for an additional N161,617,364,911 to fund the fuel subsidy scheme. He suspended debate on the Supplementary Appropriation Bill, through which the president is seeking legislative mandate for more cash for the subsidy scheme, following stiff opposition by some lawmakers.

Jonathan, had presented the Supplementary Appropriation Bill to the House and requested the lawmakers to give it an expedited passage. The bill, if passed, will bring the total fund the Federal Government will be earmarking for the fuel subsidy scheme this fiscal year to the N1 trillion mark. The National Assembly had earlier passed the provision of N888.1 billion contained in the 2012 budget for the payment of fuel subsidy.

NNPC Denies Delaying 2013 Budget

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has said it is not in any way causing delays in the passage of the 2013 budget as recently claimed by members of the House of Representatives, explaining that it has entirely cooperated with the legislators in the budget debate processes.

Reacting to claims by the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Finance, Hon. Abdulmumni Jibrin, who had asked Nigerians to hold the corporation responsible for any delay in the passing of the country’s 2013 budget, the General Manager Media Relations of NNPC, Dr. Omar Farouk, said that the corporation could not have been responsible for any delay in the passage of the 2013 budget by the national assembly.

Omar explained that the corporation had severally honoured invitations for appearance from various relevant committees of the national assembly, in which it had made presentations and clarifications on its crude oil production and revenue projection plans, adding that Jibrin’s claims were unfounded.

House Blames 2013 Budget Delay on NNPC

The House of Representatives has said that Nigerians should blame the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) for any delay in the passing of the corporation’s 2013 budget. This was disclosed by the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Finance, Hon. Abdulmumni Jibrin after the meeting of 60 revenue generating agencies.

According to him “NNPC has projected an oil production of 2.5 million barrels of oil per day. There is the need for NNPC to appear before the House Committee to explain how it intends to produce 2.5 million barrel of crude per day. We want to know the revenue expected from gas and the status of the Joint Ventures and other projections by the NNPC. Other revenue generating agencies like the Federal Inland Revenue Services, the Customs Service and the Department of the Petroleum Resources (DPR) have appeared before the House Committee on Finance, but the NNPC is yet to respond despite several invitations to it”.

On the benchmark to be used on the budget, since the Senate has benchmarked the budget on $78 and the House of Representatives on $80, the Chairman of the House Committee on Finance said, “since there was a disagreement on the benchmark to be adopted, the matter has been referred to the National Assembly Conference on Finance and the leadership of the two houses of the National Assembly. We expect them to resolve the matter based on the legislative procedures.”

Oil benchmark battle may delay 2013 budget

The dispute over the oil benchmark for the 2013 budget may soon snowball into a big fight that could delay the passage and implementation of the budget.

President Goodluck Jonathan had presented the budget proposals to a joint session of the National Assembly explaining that his proposed $75 benchmark was expedient. The Senate had increased the benchmark to $78, arguing that the new benchmark would help government to reduce deficit and domestic borrowing, and increase spending. The House of Representatives insisted that it would not back down from its demand that the benchmark should be $80 per barrel of crude oil.

The aggregate value of the 2013 budget is N4.9tn. Out of the figure, N2.4tn is for recurrent expenditure. The sum of N1.5tn was voted for capital projects, while N591.7bn was earmarked for debt servicing. The balance of N380bn was set aside for statutory transfers.

Oil Benchmark: House, Okonjo-Iweala heading for collision

The row over the oil benchmark for the 2013 budget has continued with the House of Representatives calling on the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to either obey the law or resign. According to the House, the minister’s insistence on the $75 per barrel oil benchmark breached the 2013-2015 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper passed by the House on October 9. The House had approved $80 as the oil benchmark for revenue projections in the 2013 budget under the MTEF.

The Chairman, House Committee on Finance, Dr. Abdulmunini Jibrin, said the MTEF was already a law that must be complied with just as the 2013 Appropriation Bill will pass through second reading today during plenary in the House.

However, the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has said the adoption of $75 as the oil benchmark for the 2013 Budget was to curb inflation. Okonjo-Iweala said a higher oil benchmark would not only lead to higher inflation but also a decline in the value of the naira and also lead to lower savings and reduced investment.