Following the controversy which has trailed the recent decision of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to concession the Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC) owned by the NNPC to Oando as local partner to Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC)/Eni commonly known as Agip.
The Senate has requested the Ministry of Petroleum Resources to suspend the concession of the refinery pending the outcome of its investigation against the background of issues relating to the transparency of the concession process.
The upper chamber set up a seven-man ad-hoc committee to investigate the concession selection process and report back to the Senate before the deal is sanctioned by the Ministry. The lawmakers queried the rationale behind the concession process even as it appears non-transparent and without recourse to due process.
The terms of reference of the Senate committee are to explain how the deal was reached, how and what criteria were used to select the preferred bidder. The issued was brought to the attention of the senate through a motion sponsored by Senator Sabo Mohammed, labeled Non Transparent Transaction relating to the planned concession of the Port Harcourt Refining Company by the Ministry of Petroleum Resources.
It would be recalled that the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, had announced on 9 May 2017, that Agip had committed to repairing the PHRC as part of a $15billion Foreign Direct Investment that includes building a 150 thousand barrel per day refinery and a power plant.
Vigil360 could not reach the relevant authorities to get their reaction on the planned investigations.
