Ex NNPC boss says Diezani gave out $24bn crude swap deals without contract

A former Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr Austin Oniwon, on Tuesday told the House of Representatives that there was no formal contract between the NNPC and trading companies that lifted $24bn worth of crude oil from the country between 2011 and 2014.

Oniwon said the former minister for petroleum resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke merely granted the “extension” of an earlier contract under which the companies lifted the crude worth $24bn.

He said the initial ministerial extension that was for three years also had no formal contractual agreement guiding it before he (Oniwon) left office in 2012. “There was an approval for the extension by the minister; I believe the records are with the NNPC.”

Oniwon who appeared before the House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee on Crude Oil Swap chaired by Mr Zakari Mohammed told the committee that Diezani at the time extended the contract between the Petroleum Product Marketing Company (PPMC) and its trading partners, Duke Oil Company Incorporated and Trafigura Ltd, a non-resident trading company, without recourse to due process.

“If I needed to take the crude for exchange, I am not going to write the Federal Government. It is NNPC’s decision on what to do to guarantee regular supply of products in the country,” he said.

The committee however insisted that the NNPC under Oniwon and the former minister breached procurement procedures by engaging in a transaction worth well above N100m without an approval from the Federal Executive Council (FEC).

Punch