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Reps may query N4 trillion oil field contract
From John-Abba Ogbodo, Abuja
THE House of Representatives may query the delay and revaluation of the Bonga Oilfield project valued at $3.658 billion (about N4 trillion).
The Guardian learnt that the House sub-committee on National Petroleum Investment and Management Services (NAPIMS), led by the chairman, Bethel Amadi which investigated the contract recently, expressed shock at its findings.
The committee, it was gathered, discovered that the contract which was awarded by Shell Nigeria Exploration Company (SNEPCO), a subsidiary of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), under the Production Sharing Contract (PSC) at initial cost of $2.92 billion, has been reviewed upward to $3.659 billion.
Also, the agreed completion date of April 2003 has been extended to July, 2005.
The committee, in its report, also said that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which handled the tenders, favoured contractors who failed pre-qualification tests and deviated from the standard contract award procedure.
NNPC, the report also said, rejected the recommendation that the contract should be awarded to the best contractor and instead went ahead to instruct SNEPCO to award the contract for the topside to a company that was not the lowest bidder, AMEC of United Kingdom.
The committee also reported that only the hull of the storage facility was built and AMEC moved it to Nigeria without the topside.
The contract, according to the committee, would be two and half years behind schedule while about 625,000 man-hours would still be required to complete the facility.
The committee further reported that the remaining equipment and manpower have been ferried to Nigeria at additional cost to the nation.
Consequently, the committee has asked for explanations on the rationale for the delay and increase in the value of the contract.
The Bonga Oilfield project, said to be the largest in the sub-region, caused a row in 2001 when the contract was awarded and the issue was debated on the floor of the Senate.
The House committee has, therefore, planned to hold a public hearing on the matter.`
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