Lawmaker Cautions Against Call for Probe of Crude Oil Swaps
Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Finance, Hon. Abdulmumin Jibrin, has cautioned the All Progressives Congress (APC) against its call on the National Assembly to probe the crude oil-for-petroleum-products barter programme and particularly beam its searchlight on the activities of two indigenous oil firms involved in the crude oil swaps.
APC had on Sunday invited the House Committees on Petroleum (Downstream), Petroleum (Upstream), Justice and Senate Committee on Finance to investigate Taleveras and Aiteo, which had been engaged by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to lift some of its crude in exchange for imported petroleum products.
APC further wondered whether there was a connection between the crude oil swaps and the $2.85 billion winning bid both firms had submitted for Shell Nigeria’s prolific oil block – Oil Mining Lease (OML) 29 – that the Anglo-Dutch multinational is selling with its 97-kilometre Nembe Creek oil pipeline.
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