Reps push for revocation oil bloc licenses

The House of Rep­resentatives ad-hoc Committee on Oil Prospecting Licences (OPLs) and Oil Mining Leases (OMLs), has re­solved to press for the re­vocation of oil bloc licenses issued without compliance with due process.

The committee also de­clared its readiness to do same to oil and gas com­panies that have defaulted in the payment of requisite fees to the federal govern­ment.

This followed the dis­covery of some oil and gas companies operating in vio­lation of the law yesterday at the on-going investigative public hearing into the sta­tus of several Oil Prospect­ing Licences (OPL) and Oil Mining Leases (OML) and marginal oil fields.

The Committee, chaired by Gideon Gwani (PDP Kaduna) expressed disap­pointment at the response of some oil gas companies that failed to present presi­dential approvals for their licenses.

The Department of Pe­troleum Resources (DPR) also compounded the issue by informing the Commit­tee that it has no records in its system of Presidential approvals for some of the licences that were granted through discretionary pow­ers of the Petroleum Re­sources Minister.