Our attention has been drawn to the 2015 Oil and Gas Industry Full Report published by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), a highly respected Non-Governmental Organisation renowned for producing transparent reports.
However, this latest report is unfortunately an anomaly, as it is riddled with misleading and false allegations regarding Sahara Group’s management of the Offshore Processing Agreement (OPA).
The allegation that the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC) lost $323 million to the OPA managed by Sahara in 2015 is utterly false.
A close scurtiny of the numbers touted in the report shows that the author apparently multiplied the total number of barrels lifted by a fictitious figure which we were never asked to verify. The allegation is absolutely mischievous and untrue.
Over the last three years, we have explained our role in the OPA contract which we managed successfully and have been involved in numerous reconciliations and forensic audits which have brought the contract to an equitable conclusion – for all parties.
It is on record that the OPA has been extensively reviewed by the Senate of the Federal Republic, the House of Representatives, the Honourable Minister of State for Petroleum and the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), amongst others, following similar allegations that arose post the inauguration of the current administration.
Following these reviews, it is noteworthy that Sahara Group continues to provide invaluable service to the Nation with the supply of various petroleum products.
It is not unexpected that the false allegations in the report may become a source for rehashing previously peddled OPA allegations and misconceptions.
For the benefit of the general public and our stakeholders, Sahara wishes to reiterate that its OPA contracts with the NNPC/PPMC were executed transparently and effectively in full compliance with all provisions – with absolutely no case of non-performance or incidence of quality or quantity disputes.
Sahara Group has over the past two decades built a track record of integrity, professionalism and service excellence in Nigeria’s petroleum industry and these attributes continue to drive our operations across the globe.
We urge our stakeholders, partners and the general public to disregard possible sensational and choreographed smear campaigns that may be inspired by the NEITI report.
We continue to align our business processes with the principle of integrity and transparency as members of the World Economic Forum Partnering Against Corruption Initiative.
The links below contain previous statements by Sahara on the OPA and allied matters.
http://www.sahara-group.com/sahara-explains-the-offshore-processing-agreement-opa.html
http://www.sahara-group.com/cg/opa-explanation.pdf
http://www.sahara-group.com/saharas-update-on-offshore-processing-agreement-opa.html
