Revenue Leakages: Reps To Probe NNPC’s Joint Venture Agreements

The House of Representatives on Tuesday resolved to investigate Joint Venture (JV) agreements entered between the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and oil companies with the view to recovering revenues accrued to the Nigeria’s federation Account.

The six joint ventures involving oil companies as enlisted on NNPC website are: Texaco Overseas Petroleum Company of Nigeria Unlimited (TOPCON), Elf Petroleum Nigeria Limited (EPNL), Nigerian Agip Oil Company Limited (NAOC), Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited (MPNU), Chevron Nigeria Limited (CNL), and Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC).

The NNPC enters into the joint venture agreements with oil companies operating in Nigeria and manages the joint venture accounts on behalf of the federal government.

The House also resolved to set up an ad-hoc committee to carry out forensic review of the joint venture accounts with a view to establishing the income accrued to the joint venture partners in the past seven years. The adhoc committee is also expected to ascertain the actual amount remitted to the Federation Account and report back to the House within seven days.

The resolution was sequel to the adoption of the motion titled: “Recovery of Revenues Payable to the Federation Account from NNPC and its      Joint Venture Partners,” sponsored by Ossai Nicholas Ossai (Delta/PDP).

In a lead debate, Ossai submitted that the NNPC and partner oil companies were expected to fund the joint venture operations and share the oil produced and other associated benefits or revenues in line with their interest holdings as contained in the joint venture agreements.

“Federal government’s contribution to the funding of the joint venture is sourced from the Appropriation Acts and released by the NNPC through a system of monthly Cash Calls which frees the government from any other cost obligation,”