The Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), Mr. Waziri Adio has explained how the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) undervalued eight Oil Mining Leases (OMLs) belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), ThisDay reports.

While speaking at the corporate head office of ThisDay, Adio said DPR valued NNPC’s 55 per cent stake in the eight OMLs at $1.8 billion, while Shell, Total and Agip valued their 45 per cent stake in the eight OMLs at over $2 billion. As part of the divestment of their onshore assets, Shell, Total and Nigerian Agip Oil Company had divested their 45 per cent stake in OMLs – 4, 26, 30, 34, 38, 40, 41 and 42. NNPC retained 55 per cent in the eight OMLs, which it later transferred to its producing arm, the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) between 2010 and 2011 at a cost of $1.8 billion.

“Eight assets that belong to the Federation – eight Oil Mining Leases (OMLs) were valued at $1.8 billion. We believe those assets were undervalued but that is not the point. Out of the $1.8 billion, NPDC paid only $100 million. So, there is an outstanding of $1.7 billion,” he said. He added that the NEITI audit also discovered that NNPC assigned four OMLs – 60, 61, 62 and 63 from the Agip joint venture to NPDC in December 2012 but no amount had been paid on these four OMLs as at the conclusion of the 2013 audit, neither was the value of the consideration stated in the deed of assignment.