President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the restoration of the leases on OMLs 123, 124, 126 and 137 to the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) which is in a production sharing contract with the Chinese government-0wned, Addax Petroleum.
This is in line with the current administration’s rule of law, fairness and enabling a stable business environment for businesses.
This disclosure is contained in a statement issued by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, through a series of tweet posts on his official Twitter handle on Friday, April 23, 2021.
The President directed the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) to retract the letter of revocation of the leases, while also directing NNPC to utilize contractual provisions to resolve issues in line with extant provisions of the Production Sharing Contract arrangement between NNPC and Addax.
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What the Presidential Media Aide is saying in the statement
The statement from Garba Shehu partly reads, ‘’In line with the current administration’s commitment to the rule of law, fairness and enabling a stable business climate for investment, President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the restoration of the leases on OMLs 123, 124, 126 and 137 to NNPC Group which is in production sharing contract with Addax Petroleum, a company wholly owned by Government of the People’s Republic of China on the blocks. The leases belonging to the Federation were revoked on March 30, 2021.
‘’This development reaffirms the commitment of President Buhari to the rule of law and sanctity of contracts. While directing the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR to retract the letter pf revocation of the leases, the President also directed NNPC to utilize contractual provisions to resolve issues in line with the extant provisions of the Production Sharing Contract arrangement between NNPC and Addax.’’
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Shehu in his statement also said that the restoration of the blocks to NNPC will boost the organisation’s portfolio, thereby making the corporation to, in the long run, boost its crude oil production and in turn increase the revenue it generates to the Federation Account.
In case you missed it
It can be recalled that the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), had on March 31, 2021, revoked the 4 assets of Addax Petroleum Exploration Nigeria Limited, namely OMLs 123, 124, 126 and 137 due to the non-development of the assets by the company.
The DPR had earlier said that it has inaugurated a team of experts to evaluate the revoked assets of Addax Petroleum, which was in preparation for the formal handing over to the new operators- Kaztech/Slavic Consortium.
The oil sector regulator also pointed out that the move was in fulfilment of the Federal Government’s commitment to reactivating all moribund oil and gas support facilities across the country.
In line with the current administration’s commitment to the rule of law, fairness & enabling a stable business climate for investment, President @MBuhari has approved the restoration of the leases on OMLs 123, 124, 126 & 137 to @NNPCgroup,…
— Garba Shehu (@GarShehu) April 23, 2021
