The Federal Government of Nigeria may have so far raked in an estimated N4.4 billion already from the marginal oil field processing bid round. Total revenue from processing alone will be more than N5 billion by the end of the process.
This amount to be realised from the processing does not include the signature bonus that would be paid based on the value of the assets concerned at the end of the bid round.
Analysis of the payment so far indicates that 600 investors have paid N500,000 each as registration fee, which amounted to N300 million; another estimated N800 million is believed to also have been paid as application fee by 400 out of the 600 investors. They paid N2 million each. Also, same 400 investors must have paid about N1.2 billion at N3 million as bid processing fee. These fees were paid before any of the investors was prequalified, according to BusinessDay’s finding.
If all the 400 investors are prequalified by the Department of Petroleum Resource (DPR) at the stipulated $15,000 each for Data Prying, the stage the exercise is now, this fee translates to N5 million each at N360 to a dollar, and would amount to N2 billion. Adding all the fees paid so far together at this level means about N4.4 billion has been paid into the coffer of the Federal Government as revenue as at last week.
A number of those that have been prequalified, BusinessDay learns, are now jostling across the country scouting for people that would be on their management boards to fulfil one of the conditions in the guidelines, as their boards must reflect Federal Character.
It was leant at the weekend that politicians in Abuja are also positioning themselves for negotiations with those prequalified for necessary assistance to ensure they succeed in the bid round.
“All I can tell you is that some politicians are making moves to get in touch with some of the investors to help them negotiate their way through the government,” a consultant to one of the companies tells BusinessDay.
Many oil and gas industry stakeholders are however sceptical about the level of transparency in the conduct of the exercise, as they believe that many genuine investors may not get the fields they would bid for but rather some party and government cronies.
Some observers say for the government to have put Federal Character as part of the conditions that must be met by investors, alone, is an indication that there will not be transparency in the exercise. They are also of the view that the government is doing the exercise to raise money.
According to them, if genuinely the government wants real investors in the exercise, technical and commercial ability of investors should be more of paramount importance than Federal Character.
When Paul Osu, spokesman for DPR, was asked to comment on this, he said raising money was not the primary motive of the government but rather to develop local capacities and create jobs for Nigerians.
He assured that the exercise would be as transparent as possible, judging from the processes the various stages had been subjected to.
