President, Muhammadu Buhari has given approval to restore four Oil Mining Leases (OMLs) to the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.
The NNPC is in production sharing contract with Addax Petroleum, Chinese-owned oil firm.
The OMLs restored include 123, 124, 126 and 137, hitherto owned jointly by NNPC and the Chinese company and the leases belonging to the Federation were revoked on March 30, 2021.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu made this known in a statement released on Friday.
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”The move is in line with the current government’s commitment to the rule of law, fairness and enabling a stable business climate for investment… This development reaffirms the commitment of President Buhari to the rule of law and sanctity of contracts,” Shehu said.
He stated that the President had directed the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR to retract the letter of revocation of the leases and adirected NNPC to use contractual provisions to resolve issues in line with the extant provisions of the Production Sharing Contract arrangement between NNPC and Addax.
The Presidential Spokesman added that the restoration of the blocks to NNPC would boost the organisation’s portfolio, its crude oil production and increase the revenue it generates to the Federation Account.
Matthew