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Nigeria makes changes to reduce risk of marginal oilfield disputes

Published 30/06/2020, 16:22

By Tife Owolabi
YENAGOA, Nigeria June 30 (Reuters) - Nigeria has changed the
way marginal oilfields are allocated to avoid legal problems
that bedevilled a previous bidding round, the director of the
Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) said on Tuesday.
Nigeria in early June launched its first bidding round for
marginal fields - smaller blocks typically developed by domestic
companies - in nearly 20 years. It hopes the round will boost
oil output and bring in much needed revenues. The DPR, the petroleum regulator, has said none of the
fields being awarded faced legal issues, but courts have blocked
two fields that were revoked in April from being included in any
new licensing round. Sources have said other legal challenges
were expected from those holding 11 licences revoked in April.
The DPR's director, Auwalu Sarki, said the previous round
was "fraught with litigations and other challenges," which
hampered the development of some of the oilfields, but added
authorities had learned from previous mistakes.
"This time around, our awardees will be credible investors
with technical and financial capability," Sarki said on Monday
while addressing the Africa Marginal Oilfield and Independent
Producers Webinar Conference.
"There is also the Post-General Award Conditions. This deals
with transfer of interest post award. It means awardees cannot
transfer more than 49% interest to another party post-award."
He said the conditions also allow the petroleum minister to
withdraw the interest of a party that fails to meet its
obligations in terms of joint awardees.

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