The Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Ajjampur R. Ghanashyam, has
revealed that the NNPC had failed to sign a long-term agreement with New
Delhi, Nigeria’s Number One oil buyer, but rather used intermediaries
in the annual $14 billion deal.
The Indian High Commissioner added that apart from
the lack of long-term agreement between the two countries on crude oil
purchases, in 2006, an Indian company, Oil & Natural Gas Commission
Videsh Limited (OVL) and Mittal Energy International, which is a joint
venture between OVL, an Indian government company, and Mittal Energy a
private firm, applied for oil concession. The Signature bonus sum of $25
million was paid, but neither was the oil concession granted nor the
money paid returned to the Indian companies.
He lamented the situation thus, “How many years is it? Nine years. Even
to get the concession is not possible, and the money is not refunded to
us. For nine years your country has been sitting on this, and they make
us go round and round and round. We buy $15 billion worth of crude oil
per year and we have the potential of importing $50 billion worth of
crude oil from Nigeria.
Checks at the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Abuja at the
weekend revealed that the letter for the signature bonus was prepared by
the department, but the former minister failed to sign it until the end
of the tenure of the Jonathan administration
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