By Adedapo Adesanya
The House of Representatives is set to investigate a petition against the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr Timipre Sylva and the Director of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Mr Sarki Auwalu, over the revocation of the Dawis Island Marginal Field licence.
The petition was received at the plenary on Tuesday, October 5 and was signed by Mr Onoriode Odjegba, the Managing Director, Eurafric Energy Limited.
The company was also joined by Petralon Energy Limited in the action and said the licence was revoked in April 2020 for alleged failure to bring the field to production.
The House then adopted the report for consideration.
DPR had in April 2020 revoked the licences on 11 marginal fields, including Dawes Island field in Oil Prospecting Licence 2006 – formerly delineated as Oil Mining Lease, OML, 54 – for non-performance.
The agency had revoked the licences so these fields could go into the new licensing round – the first marginal field round since 2002 – which the country hopes will boost oil output and bring in much-needed revenues from fees associated with the licences.
Eurafric later challenged the revocation, applying for an interim injunction to restrain the revocation, following which the Federal High Court in Lagos, in June 2020, restrained the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and the DPR from selling or accepting bids for eight marginal oilfields.
Dawes Island was included in the order by the court and its sale or bids for it was to be restrained pending determination of a suit challenging its status.
Also, Eurafric forwarded a petition to the House of Representatives to halt DPR’s action.
Last year, the DPR commenced the marginal oil field bid round but delays from COVID-19 halted plans but it later commenced with over 600 companies jostling for 57 available spots.
Modupe Gbadeyanka