FG TO Probe Kachikwu Over Oil Swap Deals, Crude Oil, Gas Lifting

Strong indications have emerged that President Muhammadu Buhari has

ordered a probe into the current lists of crude oil takers, swap deals as

well as liquefied natural gas lifting lists put in place by the immediate

past Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigeria National Petroleum

Corporation (NNPC) and current minister of state petroleum resources Dr.

Ibe Kachikwu.
Our correspondent gathered that the probe was triggered by complaints from

stakeholders in the oil and gas industry who have voiced dissatisfaction

to top government functionaries as well as cries of alleged corruption and

favoritism in the allocations of crude oil, gas as well as the swap deal

involving some companies discredited by the current government when it

came to power in 2015.
An industry source who spoke to our correspondent, on the condition of

anonymity said  the new GMD NNPC  Dr. Maikanti Baru has been directed to

look into the allegations in the swap deals involving CEPSA Refinery; IOC

Refinery; ENOC and Sara Refinery labelled as major current receivers of

Nigeria crude.
Our correspondent also gathered that the NNPC boss has also been asked to

investigate the list of 20/206 crude oil taker, which Kachikwu approved.

The companies involved are Master Energy and Taleveras as well as

Mercuria; Vitol; and Trafigura, the international trading companies

approved by the former GMD.
Other deals which may come under scrutiny our correspondent gathered are

those involving the IOC Trading Affiliates listed as major players. The

companies are Exxon Trading; Total Trading; Eni Trading and Shell Trading

while the Nigerian Downstream have Oando, Sahara Energy; MRS.

Master Energy; Forte Oil; A.A Rano Ltd; Northwest Petroleum, Eternal Oil;

Taleveras and Emo Oil/China Zhenhea respectively may also be investigated

by the government.
Industry sources further revealed to our correspondent that the search

light is also expected to be beamed on the indiscriminate allocation of

gas by Kachikwu while he served as the boss of the nation's oil company.

Some of the companies which may be investigated to ascertain the

transparency of the deals they entered into with the Nigerian government

are Petrowest SA which had enjoyed allocation of Pentane Plus (owned by

MRS Oil); F-Energy (Folawiyo Group) which was allocated OSO LPG; Runi Oil

which got OSO LPG Domestic; West Africa LPG (owned by Sahara Group) which

got Escravos LPG-Mix; Metropolitan (Unknown owner); which was allocated

Pentane Plus and Worldwide Energy (owned by Trafigura) which got OSO LPG

and Zanedo Petroleume (owned by Igho Sanomi) which got OSO LPG Domestic.

Others are Falcon Petroleum which got Pentane Plus; Sahara Group which got

OSO LPG; Avedia Energy Resources which was allocated Escravos Mix and

Tenoil (belonging to Tony Elumelu) which got Escravos Condensate.

“All these allocations have not gone down well with the government and

thats why Mr. President decided to bring in a fresh hand in the person of

Dr. Baru with the clear mandate to further clean up the system for proper

accountability and transparency,” the industry source said.

Frontiers News
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