By Adedapo Adesanya
In order to avoid any legal obstruction that might block or affect Nigeria’s marginal oilfields bidding round, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has said it has changed certain rules regarding the allocation.
The Director of the DPR, Mr Auwalu Sarki, said the previous round was fraught with litigations and other challenges, which hampered the development of some of the oilfields, but added that the agency had learned from previous mistakes.
The DPR in June launched the country’s first bidding round for marginal fields in nearly 20 years in order to boost oil output and bring in the much-needed revenues that were affected by a global health crisis.
Now, the petroleum regulator said none of the fields being awarded faced legal issues, but courts have blocked two fields that were revoked in April from being included in any new licensing round. This followed another set of legal challenges expected from those holding 11 licences revoked in April.
Mr Sarki said, “This time around, our awardees will be credible investors with technical and financial capability.
“There is also the Post-General Award Conditions. This deals with the transfer of interest post-award. It means awardees cannot transfer more than 49 percent interest to another party post-award.”
He said the conditions also allow the Petroleum Minister, Mr Timipre Sylva, to withdraw the interest of a party that fails to meet its obligations in terms of joint awardees.
Dipo Olowookere