The Indian High
Commissioner to Nigeria, Ajjampur R. Ghanashyam, has revealed the dubious
practice by former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs 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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