The process of sharing Nigeria’s oil block national cake is as fraudulent now as
when Ibrahim Babangida started the process of discretionary allocation of oil blocks
to indigenous firms. Discretionary allocation of oil blocks entails that a president
can reward a mistress who performs wonderfully with an oil block with capacity for
cumulative yield of over $20 billion dollars without recourse to any process outside
of manhood attachments. Babangida, Abacha, Abdulsalami and Obasanjo awarded
discretionary oil blocks to friends, associates, family members, party chieftains,
security chiefs and all categories of bootlickers, spokespersons and cult members
without any laid down procedures.

The recipients of such oil blocks will get funds from ever willing offshore financiers
and partners to graciously settle the benefactors, the awarders, facilitators and the
Commander-in-Chief through fronts. These settlements mostly paid into foreign
accounts runs into hundreds of millions of dollars according to the potential yield of
the block. Sometimes, the awarder (sharer of national cake and direct
intermediaries) demand additional stakes in the bidding company. The awarder
sends fronts as part of the directorship and management of the bidding firms without
leaving a link to them. That is how the oil block national cake is distributed to a few
Nigerians.

Signature bonuses which are paid when an investor successfully bids, wins and
signs agreement with the petroleum ministry, running into tens of millions and
sometimes hundreds of millions of naira ,is often waived off. There is actually no
waiver; rather a diversion of what would have been paid to government t coffers is
paid into private purse as appreciation gifts. That is why those in the Petroleum
Ministry dread retirement as though it signifies going to hell fire. No matter how little
your influence, something substantial must enter your hands especially in hard
currency. The nation loses billions of dollars in diverted revenue whenever any round
of auction occurs.

OML 110 with high yield OBE oil fields was given Cavendish Petroleum owned by
Alhaji Mai Daribe, the Borno Patriarch in 1996 by Sanni Abacha. OBE oil field has
estimated over 500 million barrels of oil. In layman’s language and using average
benchmark of $100 dollars per barrel, translates to $50 billion dollars worth of oil
reserve. When you remove the taxes, royalties and sundry duties worth about 60%
of the reserve payable over time you get about $20billion dollars worth of oil in the
hands of a family.

OPL 246 was awarded to SAPETRO, a company owned by General Theophilus
Danjuma, by Sanni Abacha in 1998. Akpo condensate exports about 300,000
barrels of crude daily.

OML 112 and OML 117 were awarded to AMNI International Petroleum Development
Company owned by Colonel Sanni Bello in 1999. Sanni Bello is an inlaw to
Abdulsalami Abubakar, former Head of State of Nigeria.
OML 115, OLDWOK Field and EBOK field was awarded to Alhaji Mohammed Indimi
from Niger State. Indimi is an inlaw to former Military President Ibrahim Babangida.

OML 215 is operated by Nor East Petroleum Limited owned by Alhaji Saleh
Mohammed Gambo.

OML 108 is operated by Express Petroleum Company Limited is owned by Alhaji
Aminu Dantata.

OML II3 allocated to Yinka Folawiyo Pet Ltd is owned by Alhaji W.I. folawiyo
ASUOKPU/UMUTU marginal oil fields is operated by Seplat Petroleum. Seplat is
owned by Prince Nasiru Ado Bayero, cousin to the Central Bank Governor Lamido
Sanusi. This oil field has the capacity of 300,000 barrels of oil daily. This translates
to $30million dollars daily at average benchmark of $100 dollars per barrel.
Deducting all sundry taxes, royalties etc , this field can yield $12billion dollars daily
for the owners.

Intel owned by Atiku, Yarádua and Ado Bayero has substantial stakes in Nigeria’s
oil exploration industry both in Nigeria and Principe and Sao Tome.
AMNI owns two oil blocks OML 112 and OML 117 which it runs Afren plc and Vitol
has substantial stakes in oil blocks. Afren plc is operating EBOK oil fields in OML
67. Vitol lifts 300,000 barrels of Nigerian oil daily. Rilwanu Lukman, former OPEC
Chairman has stakes in all these named three companies.

OPL 245 was awarded to Malabu Oil& Gas Company by Sanni Abacha. Dan Etete,
Abacha’s oil minister owns Malabu Oil. In 2000, Vice President Atiku Abubakar
convinced Obasanjo to revoke OPL 245 given to Malabu Oil. Etete had earlier
rejected Atiku’s demand for substantial stakes in the high yield OPL 245 and it
attracted the venom of Ota Majesty who revoked the licence. However, in 2006,
Obasanjo had mercy on Dan Etete and gave him back his oil block worth over $20
billion dollars.

OPL 289 and OPL 233 was awarded during Obasanjo era to Peter Odili fronts,
Cleanwater Consortium, consisting of Clenwater Refinery and RivGas Petroleum and
Gas Company. Odili’s brother in law, Okey Ezenwa manages the consortium as
Vice Chairman.

OPL 286 is managed by Focus Energy in partnership with BG Group, a British oil
concern. Andy Uba has stakes in Focus Energy and his modus operandi is such
that you can never see his name in any listings yet he controls OPL and OML
through proxies.

OPL 291 was awarded to Starcrest Energy Nigeria Limited, owned by Emeka Offor
by Obasanjo . Immediately after the award, Starcrest sold the oil block to Addax
Petroleum Development Company Limited (ADDAX) Addax paid Sir Emeka Offor a
farming fee of $35million dollars and still paid the signature bonus to the
government. Emeka Offor still retains stake in ADDAX operations in Nigeria.
Mike Adenuga’s Conoil is the oldest indigenous oil exploration industry in Nigeria.
Conoil has six oil blocks and exports above 200,000 barrels of crude daily.

The oil block national cake sharing fiesta could take twists according to the mood
of the Commander-in –Chief at the particular time. In 2006, Obasanjo revoked OPL
246 which Abacha gave to Danjuma because he refused to support the tenure
elongation bid of the Ota Majesty. In 2000, Obasanjo had earlier revoked OPL 241
given to Dan Etete under the advice Atiku. However, when the Obasanjo-Atiku
faceoff started, the Ota Majesty made a u-turn and handed back the oil block to
Etete.

During the time of Late President Yarádua , a panel headed by Olusegun
Ogunjana was set up to investigate the level of transparency in the award of oil
blocks. The panel recommended that 25 oil blocks awarded by the Obasanjo be
revoked because the manner they were obtained failed to meet the best practices in
the industry. Sadiq Mahmood, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Petroleum
endorsed the report to then president with all its recommendations. As a result of
the report Yarádua revoked eleven oil blocks.

In April 2011 Mike Adenuga attempted to buy Shell’s OML 30 for $1.2 billion dollars.
The Minister for Petroleum and Nigeria’s most powerful woman refused the sale of
the OML30 to Adenuga citing national interest. This block was later sold to Heritage
Oil for $800 million dollars eleven months later.

This oil block business is so lucrative that Danjuma’s Sapetro divested of its
investment in Akpo condensate for $1billion dollars. This business is second to
none in Nigeria. That is why any attempt to investigate the activities in this sector
will always be futile. The money is so much that they give bribes in millions of
dollars. A birthday gift or child naming gift from an oil block owner to a government
official could be as paltry as $2million dollars, and if the official’s father died, the
condolence gift could reach mere $3 million dollars. When they want to bribe
legislators, it is in millions of dollars and any ongoing investigation ends within
weeks. They are so confident that with excess money they can buy up Nigeria and
they are succeeding.

In the name of competitive bidding, which Obasanjo introduced in 2005, Officials
bring companies overnight and through processes best described as secretive and
voodooist they award blocks to party faithful, fronts and phoney companies. They
collect gratifications running into hundreds of millions of dollars which is paid into
offshore account and the nation loses billions of dollars of revenue to private pockets.
During the third term agenda, Obasanjo was deceived that the allocation of oil block
to party faithfuls is to fund the third term agenda. With the failure of the third term,
the beneficiaries went home with their fortunes and thanked God or Allah for
buttering their bread. Senator Andy Uba co ordinate the award of the last rounds of
oil block by Obasanjo in 2005 and 2007. The then minister of petroleum, Edwin
Daukoru was a mere errand boy who took instructions from the presidential aide.The religious leaders should tell these oil block beneficiaries, awarders, fronts,
brokers and all involved in short changing the Nigerian people to find means or
returning all these back to the Nigerian people, through massive development
projects. They should curtail their constant visits to Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem
for prayers and attend to the poverty they spread in the land. They should build
affordable secondary schools, universities, specialist hospitals, roads, silos, etc for
the Nigerian people. They should fund talent development programmes and sponsor
activities capable of alleviating poverty. The voice of impoverished Nigerians is crying
daily and if care is not taken the God who delivered Nigeria from Abacha dark days
will visit them with calamities untold.

With the rot in this oil block awarding system and other loot all over the Nigerian
nation, something worse than revolution may happen.

http://africanexaminer.com/oilwells0427