NNPC Names Collector of Oil Block Signature Bonus, Royalty

Mon, Jan 30, 2017
By publisher
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Oil & Gas

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation clarifies that Department of Petroleum Resources is responsible for taking receipts of signature bonuses and royalty not the corporation

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has clarified that it is not involved in the collection of signature bonuses (funds) paid by oil companies to the federal government upon their successful bid for oil blocks.

Shedding light on the role of NNPC in the oil revenue collection process at a hearing of the House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee on Oil Prospecting Licenses, OPLs, and Oil Mining Leases, OMLs, on Monday, January 30, Maikanti Baru, group managing director of NNPC, said the corporation had no role in the collection of signature bonus.

According to Baru, who was represented by Bello Rabiu, NNPC’s chief operating officer, Upstream, it was the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, not the NNPC, that was charged with the responsibility of taking receipts of signature bonuses and royalty.

He, however, said the arrangement allowed NNPC to lift the royalty oil from Production Sharing Contracts, PSCs, and remit the proceeds to the DPR, adding that confirmation and reconciliation of royalty payments to the sister agency were carried out at the monthly meeting between the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation and revenue generating agencies.

NNPC assured the Ad Hoc House Committee that it would furnish it with all pieces of information on its royalty remittances from the PSCs to the DPR from 1992 till date, according to a statement by Ndu Ughamadu, group general manager, Group Public Affairs Division, NNPC.

On his part, Gideon Gwani, chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee, said the committee decided to invite all the agencies involved in the collection of oil revenues and the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to resolve the claims and counter-claims regarding the whereabouts of some signature bonuses and other revenues from some OPLs and OMLs.

He explained that the committee was mandated by the House of Representatives to investigate the award of all OPLs and OMLs granted to oil companies by the Federal Government, to, among other things, ascertain whether due process and guidelines for the acquisition of oil and gas assets were complied with.

Other agencies invited for the hearing included the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, CBN, office of the Accountant General of the Federation and the Petroleum Training Development Fund, PTDF.

Jan. 30, 2016 @ 8:30 GMT |

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