Reps committee: CAC has no record of 22 oil companies doing business with NNPC

A committee in the House of Representatives has disclosed that there is no information on the status of 23 oil companies operating in the country.

The committee is probing payments made for the subsidy on premium motor spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, from 2013 to 2021.

Ibrahim Aliyu, chairman of the committee, at the resumed hearing of the panel, on Wednesday, said the panel had written to the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) to obtain details of 57 companies doing business with the NNPC Limited.

Representatives of oil companies, including Mocol Oil and Gas, Sahara Business Development, Matrix Energy, AA Rano, among others, took turns to respond to questions fielded by members of the committee.

The lawmaker noted that the CAC, in a letter dated July 13, with reference number  RGO/SU/VOL.5/2022/0248 and signed by one Maimunat Hamu on behalf of register-general of CAC, said it has no information on 23 out of the 57 companies that has business relationship with NNPC in respect to the subsidy regime.

Consequently, the panel chairman said the NNPC had major questions to answer in regards to the companies.

Aliyu said: “I will like to direct the NNPC to provide detailed profile of these companies. At this juncture, I say that all those companies that were invited to appear before this Committee should make their profile as part of their submission. And take this to be part of the requirements for submission before this honorable committee.

“Those company the commission couldn’t find their profile, they will have a lot of questions to answer particularly, NNPC.”

In the letter, the CAC said it “could not readily find information on the exact name of the following companies as provided in our record.

“The companies are Emadeb Consortium; Britania-U Nig. Limtted; Totsa Total Ol Tradings SA; Petroleum Trading Nigeria Limited; Mocoh S.A; Socer Worldwide; Calson Bermuda Ltd; Hyson; Litasco S.A; Mercuria Energy; Cepsa Lubricant; Trafigura Pte; Vitol S.A; Ocanbed Trading Limited; Bonno Energy; West Africa Gas Limited; Petrogas; Matrix; Masters Energy; Amg; Barbedos; Hindustan and Patermina,” the commission said.

“However, you may wish to provide the registration numbers or any other available documents at your disposal to enable us to investigate further.”