We haven’t received subsidy payments since 2015 – oil companies

Oil and gas operators on Wednesday said they have not received subsidy payments on petroleum products from the federal government since 2015.

The companies disclosed this when they appeared before the House of Representatives ad-hoc committee investigating the subsidy regime in Nigeria at the National Assembly Complex, Abuja.

According to them, the transaction they have with the Nigerian government through the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has been on the direct sale, direct purchase (DSDP) basis, and no money has been given to them on account of the importation of petroleum products into the country.

The companies that appeared before the committee include; Sahara Energy Trading Company, Oando, Mocoh S.A, A.A. Rano, and Hyde Energy Limited and they all agreed that they did not receive subsidy payment from the Federal government.

Sa’ad Saidu Mahuta, an Executive Director with AA Rano while stressing the position of other oil companies said “our contract with the NNPC is purely on DSDP. We are allocated crude oil and expected to bring products as specified by the NNPC. We have not been part of subsidy accrual and we have never been paid subsidy

“No payment is made to us. It is purely a swap deal. We take crude and bring in petroleum products. We have not received any cash payment. Even after reconciliation, any outstanding is carried over,” Mahuta said.

Stephanie Oseni, representative of Sahara trading Company said the company’s partnership with the NNPC is to take crude and deliver petroleum products equivalent to the crude to the NNPC.

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Oseni said: “We import products as specified in the DSDP and are not involved in subsidy payment. We have never received any subsidy payment as part of our contract. We do reconciliation quarterly with the NNPC. Even when there are shortfalls, it is carried over to the next supply.”

On his part, Abdulwahab Oseni, the Head of Legal and Compliance in Hyde Energy Limited said even though his company was part of the DSDP arrangements, they have never received any payment for subsidy from the NNPC or any government agency.

Ibrahim Aliyu, the committee chairman disclosed that 23 of the over 50 companies involved in the DSDP project with the NNPC have no records of their existence with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).

A letter from the office of the Registrar General of the Corporate Affairs Commission Ref. RGO/SU/VOL.5/2022/0248, dated 13th July 2022 and signed by one Maimunat Hamu reads “please be informed that we could not readily find information on the exact name of the following companies as provided in our record.

The Companies include Emadeb Consortium, Britania-U Nig. Limited, Totsa Total Oil Trading SA, Petroleum Trading Nigeria Limited, Mocoh S.A, Socer Worldwide, Calson Bermuda Ltd, Hyson, Litasco S.A, Mercuria Energy, Cepsa Lubricant, Trafigura Pte, Vitol S.A, Ocanbed Trading Limited, Bonno Energy, West Africa Gas Limited, Petrogas, Matrix, Masters Energy, AMG, Barbados, Hindustan and Patermina

The chairman, Aliyu said committee will write to the embassies of the companies which he said were mostly expatriates to provide the details of the profiles.

He said: “This Committee wrote to the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, requesting the commission to avail it with information on the following companies, about 57 companies. The commission wrote as follows: I read two letters that they have sent to us.

“I will like to direct the NNPC to provide a detailed profile of these companies. At this juncture, I say that all those companies that were invited to appear before this Committee should make their profile as part of their submission.

“And take this to be part of the requirements for submission before this honorable committee. Those companies the commission couldn’t find their profile, they will have a lot of questions to answer particularly, NNPC.

“This Committee will also write to their commercial desks of their various embassies if they are expatriates so that we can have full data of them.”