Don’t cancel $260m contracts for ExxonMobil’s Usan Field –Group tells Kachikwu

 
THE Niger Delta Indigenous Movement for Radical Change (NDIMRC), has urged the Federal Government to ignore calls by some stakeholders in the Nigerian oidonl and gas industry to cancel the $260 million contracts for the ExxonMobil’s Usan Field.


Stakeholders, under the aegis of Nigerian Content Front (NCF), had earlier requested the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, to cancel the $260 million contracts awarded for the ExxonMobil’s Usan Field.

But NDIMRC, in a swift reaction, implored Kachikwu, to ignore the “hired stakeholders” seeking for the cancellation/ suspension of the multi-billion naira deal.
In a press statement signed by its President, Nelly Emma, Secretary, John Sailor and Public Relations Officer, Stanley Mukoro, the group restated that the contract for the ExxonMobil’s Usan Field followed due process and reaffirmed its earlier clean bill of health on the National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), a subsidiary of the NNPC.

According to the group, “we want to restate that those seeking for the cancellation of the contract duly awarded and threatening to drag NAPIMS before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) are being economical with the truth. This multi-billion naira deal was managed by Total Upstream Nigeria Limited (TUPNI) for two years before it was taken over by ExxonMobil and it is not true that NAPIMS allegedly approved the contract illegally.”

The group also said that, “the NNPC has cleared the air on this issue in a recent advertorial in one of the national dailies and we had expected that those still rooting for the cancellation of the contract would have allowed a sleeping dog to lie.