BREACH OF LOCAL CONTENT LAW: NIGERIAN NATIONAL ASSEMBLY SUMMONS TOPAZ MARINE

In what is regarded as a flagrant abuse of the Nigerian Local Content Act, the Nigerian National Assembly through its Committee on Public Petitions has summoned the management of the United Arab Emirate - Dubai based Topaz Marine and Energy to appear before it over allegations of abuse and circumvention of the Nigerian Content Act. Topaz Marine has been accused of misrepresenting facts and undermining local laws to enable the global marine company dominate the Nigerian oil and gas maritime business.
Our investigation reveals that Topaz is accused of breaching the express provisions of sections 3 (2) of the Nigerian Local Content Act which states that goods and services of various categories which only wholly or partly owned Nigerian Companies or corporate individuals are given priority in the award of contracts in the oil and gas industry.Especially the deployment of wholly or partly Nigerian marine vessels for offshore logistics contracts.
Topaz which currently operates 12 Platform Supply Vessels (PSVs) with International Oil Companies operating in Nigeria such as Chevron, Total, Mobil, SPDC and Agip is said to have provided the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), the agency responsible for implementing the Local Content Act with false information regarding the vessels. The vessels which are 100% owned by Topaz Marine and Energy of Dubai – UAE, are illegally flying Nigerian Flags and therefore falsely classified by the Nigerian Content Board under the indigenous category and being awarded contracts as such, thereby shortchanging the real indigenous companies and denying them contract opportunities from the IOCs.
Also summoned by the National Assembly are the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, Managing Directors of the IOCs such Chevron, Total, Mobil, SPDC, Agip and Napims who currently engage these Topaz Vessels for their operations in Nigeria.
This summons and investigation is coming at a time two vessels of Topaz Marine and Energy – Topaz Faye and Topaz Seema are currently under arrest and detention for the past months through an order made by a Nigerian Federal High Court over breach of contractual agreements. The order was issued on the 27th July 2018 and the vessels have remained under arrest since then.
Topaz has been accused by several of its partners of flagrantly breaching agreements entered into with them, and of having scant regards for local laws and authorities, hence their litany of issues with different partners.

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