Oil faces £970m grab by Nigeria
Bill Condie, Evening Standard
21 May 2008, 10:38am
Nigeria’s president has ordered its state oil company to claw back $1.9bn (£970.8m) in revenue and taxes it says it is owed by local units of Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil.
The move by Umaru Yar’Adua, part of plans to squeeze more out of the oil firms, signals difficult negotiations ahead.
The money claimed includes $850m in revenue from a production sharing contract at the Shell-operated Bonga field and $646m at the Exxon-operated Erha field.
Nigeria also says it is owed $415m from gas sales and tax at Bonga. The two fields produce 380,000 barrels of oil a day, about 20% of Nigeria’s output.
‘The president will soon unveil his broad agenda for the total restructuring of the oil and gas sector in line with his vision to turn it from a mere extractive industry to one that adds tangible values to the overall economy of the country,’ Yar’Adua’s office said.
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