Posted by By CHIDI NNADI on
Following decline of Dangote Oil and Gas to match the reserved price of $110 million and $105 million for oil blocks OPL 290 and OPL 2007 respectively, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has written to Conoil to come for discussions on OPL 290.
Following decline of Dangote Oil and Gas to match the reserved price of $110 million and $105 million for oil blocks OPL 290 and OPL 2007 respectively, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has written to Conoil to come for discussions on OPL 290.
Conoil through its subsidiary, Continental Oil and Gas, at the recent 2007 licence bid round held in Abuja had bidded $105 million (N13.4 billion) as the highest signature bonus for OPL 290 on the continental shelf block while Dangote Oil and Gas bidded $21 million for the same oil block.
Also, Continental Oil and Gas bidded $110 million for OPL 2007 while Dangote Oil and Gas bidded $31.5 million for the same oil block.
But Daily Sun reliably gathered that Dangote opted out of the two blocks due to what an insider of the company referred to as "violatile business nature of the Niger Delta region" where the blocks are located.
The Dangote source said that the signature bonus sum was not the isuue why the company rejected the blocks, but how this could be explored in future in the militant-prone zone to good profitable venture.
Since Dangote turned down the blocks, Conoil has been on the lookout that the DPR would soon confirm it the winner of the two blocks.
Earlier, Dangote Oil and Gas, which had a pre-emptive Right of First Refusal, was given up till last Tuesday to match the Conoil bid, but was said to have vacated its Right of First Refusal on OPL 290.
About 54 oil operators participated in the bid round, which was seen as the largest and most transparent in the country.
At least more than 28 companies that bidded and won on the spot paid their 50 per cent signature bonuses in bank drafts while they were expected to complete the remaining 50 per cent in the next three weeks or risk their Rights of First Refusal (ROFR), a privilege reserved for those companies with investments in Nigeria's downstream oil sector.