The House of Representatives’ Committee on Public Petitions and the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) are at loggerheads over Dawes Island marginal field lost by Eurafric for holding the national asset without production and making it unproductive for seventeen years.
The Minister of Petroleum Resources through the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), a regulator empowered by law, it was learnt, awarded the field to Petralon 54 Limited and its partners during the last bid round, a decision that was countered by Eurafric through a petition to the House Committee on Petition.
It was gathered that the regulatory agency withdrew the licences of 11 marginal field operators for non-performance, including Dawes island marginal field located in OPL2006, Okrika, Rivers State.
The agency justified the hammer on the field licence because “Dawes Island marginal field was operated by Euroafric Energy Limited for over 16yeats without significant progress to attain full production and failure to submit field development plan for the asset
The Chief Executive Officer of the agency, Mr. Sarki Auwalu, explained that the action was taken to safeguard the interest of the nation.
But, it was however gathered that the House of Representatives’ Committee on Public Petitions reversed the DPR’s award of Dawes Island marginal field to Petralon 54 Limited and its partners, on the strength that the action did not comply with the principles of equity and fair principles even when available information suggests that Eurafric had no financial or material investment in the assets development, leading to non-performance.
The committee said the three companies should benefit from any re-award of the asset, which it said should be restored to pre-revocation status in the interest of equity and national interest. It alleged that there was an ulterior motive in re-awarding the licence to Petralon 54 alone, when abinitio, Eurafric and Tako, Petralon 54 were supposed to be punished for the same offence.
