Presidency wades into NIMASA, NLNG face-off

[TGD]

 • NNPC disowns agency

AN intervention from the Presidency Sunday led to the lifting of the blockade of access to Bonny Channels of the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Company (NLNG) by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA).

The lifting of the blockade was specifically at the instance of the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, her counterpart in the Transport Ministry, Idris A. Umar and the National Security Adviser (NSA).

A source said that senior government officials voiced anger at the NLNG's seeming unwillingness to pay appropriate taxes to relevant agencies of government.

It was learnt that the government has insisted that the NLNG's management sit down with NIMASA and work out an appropriate mechanism to settle all outstanding issues.

Managing Director of NLNG, Babs Omotowa and his team flew in from Port Harcourt and had a two-hour meeting with officials of NIMASA in Lagos Sunday.

The transport minister is to lead the government's team next week for the negotiations.

But both sides are still far apart in their positions. Yesterday evening, NIMASA served the ships formal detention order.

Reacting to the blockade of the NLNG's vessels at the weekend, General Manager, External Relations of the company, Kudo Eresia-Eke, issued the following statement: "Today at about 1600hours, a vessel said to be from NIMASA blocked the Bonny Channel stopping NLNG vessels from either going in or out.

"We understand that NIMASA has resorted to this as self-help to extract levies from the company. NLNG had continuously informed NIMASA that it is exempted by the NLNG Act, an act of parliament, which has provided waivers from such prescribed levies. Any such payments contrary to the NLNG Act would therefore be illegal.

"NIMASA had earlier gone to court to resolve this issue, but later withdrew the case. We believe that under the rule of law, the courts are the appropriate interpreters of the law where there is an issue in contention. We believe that NIMASA as part of the Federal Government of Nigeria is also a respecter of the rule of law.

"Besides the economic loss to the nation as a result of imminent production shutdown that this action might cause, there is the greater potential reputation damage to the country which will have impact on government's efforts to attract Foreign Direct Investment, and not augur well for Nigeria's effort to be seen as a destination to invest.

"Nigeria LNG Limited is jointly owned by Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) (49 per cent), Shell (25.6 per cent), Total LNG (15 per cent) and Eni (10.4 per cent)."

Meanwhile, the managements of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and its subsidiary, the Pipeline and Products Marketing Company, have dissociated themselves from the purported plan to set up a pipeline protection agency.

In a statement made available to journalists, Acting Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division,

NNPC, Tumini Green, said in Abuja that the NNPC and its downstream subsidiary, PPMC, were not privy to or aware of a plan to set up an agency or commission to protect pipelines as some media have reported.

"This clarification has become necessary against the backdrop of reports carried by a section of the media claiming that the Corporation has confirmed that there are plans to set up a pipeline protection agency. For the avoidance of doubt, we wish to state emphatically that no member of the corporation's top management has attended any meeting where the idea to set up a pipelines protection commission or any agency by whatsoever name to protect the nation's pipelines was mooted. Any report claiming that the corporation is aware of such proposal or in support of it is a figment of the imagination of the reporter," it stated.

The Corporation stated that it had been exploring the options of collaborating with the security agencies and communities to curtail the menace of pipeline sabotage.

It noted that significant achievements had been recorded in this regard with the successful rehabilitation of the Aba-Port Harcourt, Warri-Benin and the Atlas Cove-Mosimi pipelines through the collaboration of the security agencies, especially the Nigerian Army Engineers Corps, while the joint task force has been of great help in tackling the menace in the Niger Delta.

"We sincerely believe that these efforts and the engagements we are having with the communities will help check and eventually end pipeline vandalism," it stated.



The Guardian

[Folami David]

Face offs won't solve any problem they might be facing now. They just need to sit down and sort things out amicably.