Abuja, Nigeria | – The state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, (NNPC) has provided clarification on the role of its subsidiary, National Petroleum Investment Services (NAPIMS) in the $260 million contract awarded by ESSO Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil in the Usan oilfield, local ThisDay newspaper reports.
According to NNPC’s clarification, it gave a detailed background of the contract and some of the controversies associated with the projects, adding however that the “referenced contract predates the current management of the NNPC as well as the Management of the National Petroleum Investment Management Services, NAPIMS, the Corporate Service Unit of the Corporation.”
The corporation also blamed the ExxonMobil unit for planning to cancel a running contract, saying the NAPIMS’ position is that “if ESSO unilaterally cancels this contract, ESSO will solely bear all incidental costs and cost of the replacement service, and such costs will be non-recoverable.”
It would be recalled that there was an alleged violation of due process in the award of the contract, as it allegedly did not receive the approval of the NNPC board. It was also alleged that based on the approval from NAPIMS, which nominated four companies to execute the projects under single source basis, ESSO had cancelled a running contract and re-awarded it to GMT Energy Resources, without any tendering process.
