FG denies plan to sell NLNG

Federal Government on Tuesday dismissed report on the planned sales of Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG) located in Bonny Island.

 
Ibe Kachikwu, minister of state for petroleum resources, disclosed this in Abuja, at the ongoing investigative public hearing held at the instance of House Committee on Gas Resources chaired by Frederick Agbedi.

 
Kachikwu, who was represented by Esther Ifejika, director of Gas Resources, argued that the ministry was not aware of the Federal Government plans to sell its equity in the multi-billion dollar facility.

 
The lawmakers queried the $1.6 billion contract variation, noting the cost of the entire contract was too staggering. The committee was also mandated to ascertain the rationale behind the controversial variations.

 
According to the NNPC, there was no infraction in the entire contract regime, noting that the award followed due process and was to the benefit of Nigerians

 
In his presentation, Maikanti Baru, NNPC group managing director, explained that the project was aimed at upgrading security in order to improve gas for local and international consumption.

 
He said the contract was duly approved before awarded, adding that the contract suffered $1.6 billion variations as a result of community disturbances among other challenges.

 
The GMD, who was represented by Bello Rabiu, chief operating officer (upstream), argued that no amount of money had been paid to any contractor as variation because there had been no board approval.

 
“We can’t accept any variation and no money was paid, it has to go to the board for approval,” Baru said.

 
In his intervention, Sunday Katung (PDP-Kaduna) who sponsored the motion to investigate the contract alleged that the JV contracts, attracted a variance beyond the projected budget sums.

 
“I deemed it expedient to draw the attention of this house to these projects to ascertain whether of all the change orders presented to the NNPC and NAPIMS, there were any approval for these requests since monies have been paid and further, whether there is value for money spent on those projects.”

 
Piqued by the controversy surrounding the transaction, the committee demanded all the necessary procurement documents leading to the award of the contract.

 
Among the documents include, minutes of meeting of procurement planning committee, bid analysis, statistical analysis and NEEDS assessment in line with various sections of the procurement Act 2016.

 
The House through three resolutions, mandated the Committee to investigate the proposed sale of the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Limited, NLNG’; ‘Need to Investigate contract for modification of EGP3B production platform following the joint ventures agreement between the NNPC and Chevron Nigeria Limited’; and ‘investigation of the contract for the upgrade of OML 58 Upgrade 1, the execution of Obote/Ubeta/Rumuji (OUR) pipeline.