The Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Ajjampur
R. Ghanashyam, has revealed the dubious practice by former Minister of
Petroleum Resources, Diezani Allison Madueke in selling crude to India
through intermediaries, thus denying Nigeria’s treasury of the full
proceed.
India is now Nigeria’s number one crude buyer, an importation that
grosses $15 billion yearly. But under Diezani Alison-Madueke, commission
agents creamed away some of the billions, when Nigeria’s treasury ought
to have enjoyed the full benefit. Nigeria is the only oil producing
nation selling its oil this way. Other nations make the sale,
country-country.
“From other countries, when we buy oil, whatever we want to pay, we
pay to the Ministry of Finance of that country. In Nigeria, we pay to
intermediaries. We would like to be dealing directly with the Nigeria
National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). It’s not a good thing. Why should
we go through intermediaries?
“Secondly, we would also like to have long term agreement, which we
have with many countries: Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and other countries
from where we buy oil. Nigeria is the only country with whom we don’t
have an agreement. .. When we write a letter to NNPC, we don’t get a
response,” Ghanashyam told Nigeria’s newspaper, Daily Trust.
The newspaper quoting NNPC 2014 Annual Statistical Bulletin reported
that India bought 136,419,844 barrels of crude oil from Nigeria. The
relationship continues.
The Indian High Commissioner added that apart from the lack of
long-term agreement between the two countries on crude oil purchases, in
2006, an Indian company, Oil & Natural Gas Commission Videsh
Limited (OVL) and Mittal Energy International, which is a joint venture
between OVL, an Indian government company, and Mittal Energy a private
firm, applied for oil concession. The Signature bonus sum of $25 million
was paid, but neither was the oil concession granted nor the money paid
returned to the Indian companies.
“How many years is it? Nine years. Even to get the concession is not
possible, and the money is not refunded to us. For nine years your
country has been sitting on this, and they make us go round and round
and round. We buy $15 billion worth of crude oil per year and we have
the potential of importing $50 billion worth of crude oil from Nigeria.
We can buy more because our requirement is going up.
But if you continue to make us to pay through agents, and continue to
ask us to buy from the swap market, it means you don’t trust us, and if
you don’t trust us, we have to look for those who trust us more. We are
making concessions to Nigeria by buying your crude oil because you’re
our old friends and we’ve been friends for a long time, and your crude
oil is better quality. But you must take our interest into account.”
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