Mike Oduniyi
28 April 2005
Lagos — The House of Represent-atives has summoned the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), US oil firm ChevronTexaco and their partners involved in the award of contracts to embattled oil services company, Halliburton.
THISDAY checks revealed that Speaker Aminu Bello Masari issued the directive on Monday to summon the oil companies following a protest from House Committee on Public Petitions over the recent award of $1.7 billion contract to a consortium of foreign companies that included Halliburton subsidiary, KBR.
The House had late last year, passed a motion recommending the ban of Halliburton and its unit, KBR, until the conclusion of an investigation into alleged payment of $180 million bribe by KBR to some Nigerian government officials to win LNG contracts.
However, KBR, along with its partners in the consortium namely Snamprogetti of Italy and Japan's JGC, was two weeks ago, awarded the GTL contract by the NNPC and ChevronTexaco Joint Venture.
KBR also last week won the EPC contract for the topsides of the floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel for ChevronTexaco Agbami deep offshore field. The value of the contract was not disclosed.
A source close to the House told THISDAY yesterday: "In a reply to the memo sent by the Chairman of the Public Petitions Committee of the House of Representatives, Hon.Chudi Offodile, the Speaker of the House directed the committee to invite immediately all the companies involved in the violation of the House resolution excluding all companies forming part of the TSKJ/Halliburton consortium from new contracts/business in Nigeria."
"The Speaker harped on the need to take stiff measures against any company involved in the violation," the source added.
The Committee, sources said, had in the memo to Masari entitled "Violation of House Resolution," complained that the House while considering the interim report of the Public Petitions Committee on September 1, 2004, had resolved that "all companies forming part of the TSKJ consortium and all Halliburton companies in Nigeria should be excluded from new contracts pending the outcome of the ongoing investigation."
"With the investigation yet to be concluded, any decision by any authority or person in violation of this resolution, infringes on the constitutional powers of the House and undermines the investigative process," said the committee.
Apart from the NNPC and ChevronTexaco Nigeria, other firms that are to appear next week before the committee are South Korea's Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Company, which sub-contracted the building of the topsides of the FPSO for ChevronTexaco's Agbami deep offshore field, Brazil's Petrobras, Statoil of Norway and indigenous oil company, Famfa Oil Limited.
KBR and Daewoo are scheduled to spend about 500,000 manhours to complete the engineering portion of the project.
The GTL plant on the other hand, will be sited in Escravos, Delta State and is expected to produce 34,000 barrels per day of diesel, naphtha and a small amount of liquefied petroleum gas.
The House Committee early in 2004 first began investigation into allegations that the TSKJ consortium paid illegal commissions amounting to $180 million to Nigerian government officials to win the LNG contract in 1995.
The probe Tribunal De Grande Instance De Paris was the first to launch investigation into the transaction in October 2003.
Last September, the House committee summoned principal officers involved in the transactions entered into in the early stage of the LNG project.
Apart from the motion passed by the House on the issue, an Abuja High Court also ruled that the House Committee be allowed access to the accounts of some of the suspects in the bribe scandal.
Early this year, the Swiss justice authorities blocked bank accounts containing $100 million, which were linked to the $180 million bribe. The freezing of the account was imposed after the same French court asked Switzerland to grant judicial assistance for its investigation in the case.
Halliburton has, however, commenced moves to sell off KBR, which is also linked to other financial malpractices around the globe.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2005 This Day. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
