From Uche Usim, Abuja
The Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has said that all the companies that got marginal fields were duly qualified for them having met all laid down award criteria; describing a media report that stated otherwise as false and misleading.
The Commission also revealed that all the marginal field awardees paid all required signature bonuses as stipulated by law.
The Commission’s Chief Executive, Gbenga Komolafe, made the clarification in a statement following a national newspaper that stated that the NUPRC bypassed the rules of engagement while carrying out the 2020/2021 marginal fields award. The medium quoted a document from the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) as its source.
While NEITI has distanced itself from the report, the NUPRC CEO picked holes in it, saying it was a complete misrepresentation of both the process and outcome of the 2020 marginal field award exercise.
He expressed surprise that NEITI could be associated with such a narrative, stressing that he got across to the NEITI Executive Secretary, Dr Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, who frowned at the published material.
He noted that at the end of the exercise and in line with existing government policy to encourage as many qualified Nigerian companies to participate in the upstream business, 161 entities from the 482 pre-qualified bids were offered marginal fields and given a deadline to make signature bonus payments.
“A number of these entities were offered fields on a joint basis. The commission, upon inception, had to embark on extensive stakeholder engagements with the successful bidders to resolve the many issues arising from the policy of jointly awarding some of the fields to several awardees. These engagements were held in both Lagos and Abuja.
“In the event where those offered fields in the exercise were unable to fulfill their obligation to pay the signature bonus within the time frame specified, the commission sought and obtained the approval of the presidency to re-award those not paid for to other entities who participated in the bid exercise but who were not offered any fields during the initial stage”, he said.
The media report had alleged that the NUPRC awarded marginal fields to some companies prior to payment of signature bonus by the firms.
It also quoted the NEITI report as stating that the upstream regulator of the oil sector accepted payment of signature bonus by companies that did not participate in the marginal fields award process.
“These later awards were premised on the condition that considered companies present clear evidence of both financial and technical capability,” Komolafe stated.
He added: “Other than the provisional award letters issued to qualified bidders (which contain the terms and conditions of the award including the signature bonus payable), in all cases, final letters of award were only issued upon payment of 100 per cent of the signature bonus by or on behalf of the awardee.
It is worth restating that as a regulatory body governed by laws under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) of 2021, the commission neither awarded marginal fields to entities that did not participate in the 2020 marginal bid round nor awarded a field to any company that did not meet the obligation of paying the statutory signature bonus.
“As the upstream oil and gas regulator, the NUPRC will remain transparent and predictable in its mandate to reposition the upstream sector of our economy to attract credible investors for the shared prosperity of the nation,” he said.
At the end of the exercise, the upstream regulator stated that 55 fields were successfully awarded and paid for.