Mr Gbenga Komolafe, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), in a recent statement, has assured stakeholders of the Commission’s resolve to ensure transparency in all its dealings.
Komolafe made this known during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Friday while updating the public on the revoked Addax Petroleum licence.
This comes after Komolafe had earlier confirmed that Addax Petroleum lost Oil Mining Licences (OMLs) 123, 124, 126 and 137 and were reverted to NNPC due to its inability to meet set obligations in the licence award provision.
NAN reports that NUPRC, formerly known as the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), in 2021 revoked four Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) licences operated by Addax Petroleum, citing production decline and non-development of assets for several years.
The assets were immediately re-awarded to Kaztec Engineering Limited/Salvic Petroleum Resources Limited (KEL/Salvic) Consortium, consisting of two Nigerian owned independents, with effect from March 23, 2021, with the approval of President Muhammadu Buhari.
According to Komolafe, the re-award of the Addax licence will be a test case for the effectiveness of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
He said that before now, oil mining leases were issued under the defunct Petroleum Act.
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