Alison-Madueke reacts to reports she granted $24 billion oil deal without a contract

Nigeria's Former Minister for Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, has strongly denied claims that she gave $24 billion oil swap deals without a contract.

A former NNPC GMD, Austen Oniwon, had under questioning by the EFCC, stated that the NNPC under Diezani's supervision had granted $24bn oil swap deals without a contract.

However, Diezani in a statement by her spokesman, Mr. Clem Aguiyi, insisted that what she gave were ‘Approvals for Renewal of Contract for firstly, a 1 Year Term each for both Messrs Trafigura Beheer BV and Messrs Society Ivoirienne de Raffinage (SIR) in August 2010 and then for a 2 Year Term in August 2011 for the same companies.

She also revealed that the NNPC Subsidiary, Duke Oil, was given approval for a 1 year Term in January 2011 adding that two other approvals were consequently sought by the GMD, NNPC, first on the 29th August 2014 and secondly on the 28th of October 2014.

“Following the recommendation of the then GMD, NNPC, the Minister approved OPAs for a new term of 2 years commencing from 1st January 2015. The entities recommended by NNPC were Sahara Energy Resources Ltd, Aiteo Energy and Duke Oil,” the statement read.

“NNPC strongly recommended and outlined the benefits of the OPA over the SWAPs and put forward the case for migration from the OPA and crude exchange (SWAP) Contracts to OPAs fully. NNPC posited that the ‘experienced benefits of the OPA to the Federation’, would be much greater.”

“There would have been little need to respond to this particular issue at this time considering that the former minister is still indisposed and would have wished to be left alone to recuperate. She will speak for herself in due time. It is nevertheless imperative that records are set straight so that Nigerians and posterity will know the truth.

“Mr. Oniwon was right when he stated that the 445000 barrels of crude oil were the property of NNPC, bought from the Federal Government of Nigeria at the prevailing rate and therefore as GMD, he did not need the Federal Executive Councilor Presidential Approval to enter into SWAP arrangements that will enable NNPC fulfill its statutory obligations.

“It was also correct that contrary to the picture being painted in the media not more than 210,000 bpd out of the 445000 bpd lifted by NNPC to ensure adequate supply and distribution of petroleum products were traded under the SWAP arrangement.

“What the GMD required to execute the above was statutory approval from the minister for the companies !Refineries chosen by NNPC to participate in the SWAP arrangement as outlined in section 4 of the Petroleum Act and section 20 of the NNPC Act.

“It is however incorrect to say that the former minister gave ‘Approval for Extension’ unless “Extension” can legally be substituted for “Renewal” because what the Minister gave (and the records are there) was approval for ‘Renewal of Contract’. And these approvals were given based on letters of request received from the GMD of NNPC.

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