Senate Investigates Dangote Oil Refinery, Delta Govt, NIPCO 12 Other Companies Over N135bn CBN's Gas Expansion Loan
By Ndifreke BASSEY
The Senate committee on gas has commenced invention of Dangote Oil Refinery, Delta State Government NIPCO Gas Ltd and 12 other companies over the N155bn Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) Gas Expansion intervention loan.
The Chairman of the Committee, Senator Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe, who disclosed this in Abuja, said the companies are expected to appear before it with their progress reports, location and the current status of the projects the loan facility was meant for.
Jarigbe listed the companies that benefited from the CBN intervention to include NIPCO Gas Ltd (N25bn), NIPCO Plc (N5bn), Hyde Energy Ltd (N2bn) and Lee Engineering and Construction Company (N15bn), Pinnacle Oil and Gas FZE (N10bn), Transit Gas Limited (N8bn), Amalgamated Oil Company Nig. Ltd (N5bn) and Gas Nexus Ltd (N10bn).
Others are First Modular Gas Systems Limited (N4.3 bn) Novagas Limited (N1bn), Greenville Liquified Natural Gas Company (N10bn) and AP LPG Limited (N8bn), Dangote Oil Refinery (N5bn), Delta State Government (N20bn) and Mob Integrated Services Limited (N2.5bn).
Speaking, Jarigbe disclosed that the committee have observed that some of the oil and gas companies did not utilise the fund for the purpose for which it was obtained.
The Committee Chairman added that the Senate would not hesitate to invoke its constitutional powers to ensure that defaulting companies are sanctioned.
He said the task of the committee is to ensure that the companies expend the funds on what they were collected for, complaining that some of the companies did not follow the guidelines and standard procedures before obtaining the loan.
“Some of the beneficiaries did not follow the guidelines. For instance, the Ministry of Petroleum Resources is not even aware that the funds have been released”.
“The guidelines stated clearly, without ambiguity, that loan requests are supposed to be evaluated by the Ministry before the list of qualified companies are sent to the CBN for them to access the loans, but that was not adhered to.
"A preliminary investigation conducted by the committee indicated that some of the companies did not embark on any project since they received the loans.
“We have also discovered that some of the companies do not have anything on ground since they got the loan. The committee would investigate all the observations, evaluate them and let Nigerians know the true position of things.”
