Some indigenous companies not registered by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) have lifted Nigerian crude oil grades valued at U.S.$3.5 billion (about N1.1 trillion) in the last 10 months, Daily Trust reports.
A four-month enquiry into Nigerian and global corporate registries by Daily Trust showed that the repeated failure by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to provide clear and accurate identity of some companies it awarded multi-million dollar oil lifting contracts this year may be helping these companies to escape public scrutiny. The issue started on January 3, 2017 when the NNPC announced 39 successful winners for its crude lifting contract that would run for 12 months. The announcement was followed by a release of the names of the winners to newsmen and in a post on its official website.
Part of the mandatory pre-qualification requirement for the Nigerian companies that applied for the contract as requested by the NNPC was evidence of company registration issued by the CAC. Daily Trust on Sunday wrote to the CAC seeking information on the registration statuses of the 18 indigenous companies that won the contract. But the commission replied that it had no evidence of the registration of seven of the 18 companies. A Freedom of Information (FOI) request dated August 9, 2017 to the NNPC asking for the authentic names of the 18 indigenous companies as well as their crude oil entitlements, has not yet been replied to by the corporation.
