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$24 bn non-formalized contracts .. Nigeria’s former Oil Minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke to appear before House Committee

&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpcnt">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpa">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<span class&equals;"wpa-about">Advertisements<&sol;span>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"u top&lowbar;amp">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<amp-ad width&equals;"300" height&equals;"265"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; type&equals;"pubmine"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-siteid&equals;"109460728"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-section&equals;"1">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;amp-ad>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div><h3><span style&equals;"font-size&colon;x-large&semi;"><i><span style&equals;"color&colon;&num;999999&semi;">The Nigeria&&num;8217&semi;s former Minister of Petroleum Resources&comma; Mrs&period; Diezani Alison-Madueke has been invited by to appear before a committee of the House of Representative on March 2&period; The Committee is investigating allegations of contract extensions in the country&&num;8217&semi;s national energy company&comma; NNPC&comma; worth &dollar;24 billion<&sol;span><&sol;i><&sol;span><br &sol;>&NewLine;<span style&equals;"color&colon;&num;333333&semi;"><span style&equals;"font-size&colon;large&semi;"><i> <&sol;i><&sol;span><&sol;span><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<h3><span style&equals;"color&colon;&num;333333&semi;"><span style&equals;"font-size&colon;large&semi;"><i>Alison-Madueke to produce <&sol;i><br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;full brief on all SWAP arrangements&comma; a proof of Federal Executive Council’s approval&comma; the NNPC Board Resolution on the contracts&comma; evidence of the approval limit of the board and that of the Minister of Petroleum Resources and that of the GMD&period;” &&num;8211&semi; <&sol;span><&sol;span> <b>Mr&period; Zakari Mohammed<&sol;b>&comma; Chairman House Committee on Crude Oil Swap&comma;<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<h6>&NewLine;<b><img class&equals;"alignnone wp-image-213635" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;konniemoments&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;02&sol;diezani-allison-madueke-6&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Diezani Allison-Madueke 6&period;jpg" width&equals;"622" height&equals;"422" &sol;><br &sol;>&NewLine;Mrs&period; Diezani Alison-Madueke Nigeria&&num;8217&semi;s former energy Minister<&sol;b><&sol;h6>&NewLine;<p>Nigeria&&num;8217&semi;s former Oil Minister&comma; Allison Allison-Madueke has been accused of unilaterally approving the extension of service contracts with the corporation&&num;8217&semi;s external vendors worth &dollar;24 bn&period; The Chairman of the House Ad hoc Committee on Crude Oil Swap&comma; Mr&period; Zakari Mohammed&comma; confirmed on Monday that a letter had been sent to Alison-Madueke to appear before the committee on March 2&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The Committee&comma; has been investigating SWAP&comma; a process whereby the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation &lpar;NNPC&rpar;&comma; traded crude petroleum for refined products&period; Last week the Committee heard that contractors&comma; Duke Oil and Tranfigura got initial SWAP contracts in 2010&comma; to last one year&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;However&comma; at the contract expiration in 2011&comma; the former minister reportedly&comma; breached due process and ordered an &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;extension” of the contracts&comma; to run till 2014&comma; without going through the vetting processes required for such  contract extensions&period; No formal contracts were signed&comma; either&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;While <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;konnie-moments&period;blogspot&period;com&sol;2016&sol;02&sol;allison-madueke-alone-awarded-and&period;html" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">appearing before the Committee last week&comma;<&sol;a> three past Group Managing Directors of the NNPC&semi; Austin Oniwon&comma; Andrew Yakubu and Joseph Dawha all admitted that the SWAP was executed without formal contracts&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;There was an approval for the extension by the minister&semi; I believe the records are with the NNPC&comma;” stated Oniwon&comma; the first to appear before the panel&period; Dawha then told the Committee that Duke Oil lifted 210&comma;000 barrels of crude daily&comma; while Tranfigura loaded 90&comma;000 barrels” per day&comma; adding&colon; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Thus&comma; as of August 2014&comma; when I assumed office&comma; the contracts were being run long after they had expired”&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Yakubu&comma; also told the Committee&comma; he sent a report to Alison-Madueke on the need to review and formalize the contracts&comma; but that the report &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;never came back to me from the minister&period;”<br &sol;>&NewLine;Speaking on the documents the committee had directed the former minister to produce&comma; Mohammed said they included &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;full brief on all SWAP arrangements&comma; a proof of Federal Executive Council’s approval&comma; the NNPC Board Resolution on the contracts&comma; evidence of the approval limit of the board and that of the Minister of Petroleum Resources and that of the GMD&period;”<br &sol;>&NewLine;Mohammed explained that the Federal Executive Council &lpar;FEC&rpar;&comma; approval was necessary because by regulations&comma; the approval limit of a minister was N100million&comma; while higher amounts like the controversial &dollar;24billion would require the approval of the FEC&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Dawha&comma; who was the last GMD to serve under Alison-Madueke&comma; had explained how he later ended the swap deals because they were &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;abnormal&period;” He admitted that in the 27 years he served as an employee of the NNPC&comma; there was never a period in the history of the corporation that such arrangements were allowed&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;He  further told the committee that he sought legal opinion on rectifying the anomalous SWAP arrangement following which he briefed the minister on the need to sign legally-binding contracts with vendor companies&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Upon receipt of the minister’s approval granted in August 2014&comma; the contracts were formally extended to cover the periods from their respective dates of expiry until the end of December 2014&comma;”<br &sol;>&NewLine;The new contracts incorporated an agreement to end the swap arrangements on their expiration&comma; and migrate fully to Offshore Processing Agreement&comma; which involved the direct processing of crude for refined products&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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