CASER faults oil, gas metering contract by NUPRC
Citizens Advocacy for Social & Economic Rights (CASER) has condemned the recent contracts awarded by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) for oil and gas metering.
The Director, Advocacy Center Citizens Advocacy for Social & Economic Rights (CASER) Frank Tietie, in a press release issued on Monday said this decision blatantly undermines Nigeria’s national interest and reeks of high-level corruption.
According to him, the Federal Government of Nigeria, under the past administration of President Muhammadu Buhari had already awarded the contract to a Consortium led by Antasser Nigeria Ltd, a global leader in cargo monitoring for ensuring national security and accuracy of revenue remittances to governments across the world.
“However, it is with profound disappointment that we have learned from the Minister of State for Petroleum, Heineken Lokpobri, of the recent revelation that contracts for the engineering audit of upstream measurement equipment and facilities in the Nigerian Oil and Gas Upstream has been awarded to a particular company, PE Energy Limited, for the sum of $21 million (US Dollars), while another contract for the procurement of pre-field development studies for advanced declaration solution Technology (international Cargo Tracking Note) for the Nigerian Oil and Gas Upstream Sector was awarded to P-Lyne Energy Limited for an amount yet to be disclosed.
“Essentially, the above two recent contracts form part of services to be rendered free of charge to the Federal Government in a different contract which has already been awarded to a Consortium led by Antasser Nigeria Ltd, and the services to be provided by these recent awards are a clear duplication of services that are actually meant to be at a total zero cost to the Federal Government of Nigeria under the implementation of the International Cargo Tracking Note (ICTN).
“It is important to question why the Nigerian Shippers Council and the Honorable Minister of Marine and Blue Economy have not activated the existing contract with the Antasser-led consortium, instead they have allowed for a duplication of the same contract by another agency of the same government.
“This duplication seems to either be motivated by corruption and the self-enrichment of certain individuals in positions of power or the refusal of a cabal benefiting from the status quo,” he said.
