Oil surveillance: Group berates critics, says merit was criterion for awarding contract

Conference of Civil Society Groups For Good Governance (CSGGG) has countered the sustained smear campaign against Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Limited) over rehabilitation as well as surveillance contracts.

The group was reacting to allegations that contracts for the rehabilitation of pipelines across the country were awarded to a “northern oil cabal”

Addressing a press conference in Abuja on Sunday, the President of the group Comrade Domnic Ogakwu indicated that peddling gross misinformation and unsubstantiated allegations on oil pipeline rehabilitation as well as surveillance contracts has now been adopted as a weapon of choice in the hands of the unpatriotic elements. 

Comrade Ogaku enumerated the giant strides of the NNPC limited and called on Nigerians to support the astute leadership of Mele Kyari in the face of unpatriotic and misleading distractions by saboteurs of President Bola Tinubu’s adminiatration.

He said merit was considered in the award of contract, “It is obvious to all well-meaning Nigerians that  some wolves are expending  a lot of negative energies to discredit the Group Chief Executive Officer of the NNPC Limited, Mallam Mele Kyari, in order to push him out of office and have unfettered access to seize and manipulate state resources to their personal advantage. 

“The recent attempts are not new and amount to red herring when there is absolutely no need or iota of facts about the allegations.

“The claim of “quietly awarding the control of Nigeria’s pipelines to a Northern oil cabal” is not only fallacious, figment of the writers and their sponsors’ imagination but cowardly, and begs the question.

According to him, to award such a contract requires tender notices in form of advertisements which were made public for qualified companies to bid. 

“The process for the contracts awards, as has been the case since Mallam Kyari assumed office, remains rigorous in line with industry norms. 

“Each bidding company has been subjected to a competitive tender selection process as guided by the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission and a transaction advisor. 

“These regulatory institutions had to also work with the Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI) and the Ministry of Justice in the project development and evaluation exercise.

“So, it stands against reasoning that after such a rigorous process, anything untoward will be suggested by any rational mind.

He listed the winning companies which prove the allegations otherwise as obtained from findings to include,

LOT 1: Oilserve Ltd, Chu Kong Steel Pipe Group Company Ltd, Saudi Crown Oilserve.

LOT 2: MacReady Oil and Gas Services, COBRA Instalicios S.A, Control Y Montajes Industriales & International De Pipelines, Iron Products Industries Ltd, Batelitwin Global Services Ltd, Bauen Empresa Constructora SAU, Sanderton Energy Ltd, The Spanish National Association of Manufacturers.

LOT 3: A A Rano, Zakhem Construction Nigeria, Bablinks Resources Ltd, VAE Controls S.R.O.

LOT 4: MRS Oil and Gas, CPPE Nigeria Ltd,” it added.

“Furthermore, we are not unmindful that some individuals are double bent on creating mountains out of nothing over the award of pipeline surveillance contracts to qualified and performing entities and not them.

“Pipeline surveillance is not a tea party as recent events have shown. Therefore, being an –ex-militant is not enough qualification to be awarded such a critical task. “The priority of NNPC Limited is to ensure a safe and secure oil infrastructure and functional pipeline corridor to sustainably deliver national production targets. 

“There is nothing personal to Mele Kyari and management NNPC Limited, rather than what is possible and best for the country.

“Since his appointment in 2021 by former President Muhammadu Buhari as GCEO of the NNPC Limited, the successor company to the NNPC, Mallam Kyari has been guided by his Roadmap to Global Excellence” anchored on the principles of Transparency, Accountability and Performance Excellence (TAPE).

“In about this period, Nigeria’s oil production has seen significant improvement through the curbing of waves of mindless theft of Nigeria’s oil by criminal elements. 

“This initiative has seen many seizures of tankers laden with illegal crude and the discovery of a four-kilometer illegal oil connection line from Forcados Terminal into the sea which had been in operation for nine years. “Nigerians will not be wrong to believe that beneficiaries of this heinous economic crime will fight back in anyway their influence can afford as their pockets gets dry.

“Today, our country is witnessing spike in oil production to over 1.8 million barrels per day, in addition to regaining our national position as the largest crude oil producer in Africa, ahead of Algeria’s 1.021mb/d and Angola’s 1.088mb/d.

“It remains on record that in 2022, NNPC Limited under the astute leadership of Mele Kyari has for two-consecutive years recorded a profit. 

“Nigerians have seen NNPC making profit for the first time in 44 years. Growing from N287 billion in 2020 to N674.1 billion in the 2021 financial period. The figure represented an increase of N387 billion or 134.8 per cent when compared to the previous profit recorded in 2020.”