The Department of Petroleum Resources and Conoil Producing are to meet this week over the controversial OPL 2007, one of the blocks won by the company at the just-concluded bidding round.
Also, the company (Conoil), it was learnt, yesterday paid the 50 per cent balance of the Signature Bonus for the OPL 290.
Although a Conoil official stated that the meeting was for a formal handover of the OPL 2007 to his company, which emerged the bona fide winner of the block, a highly placed DPR source who though confirmed that the company has been invited to a round table meeting, declined further comments on the oil block, which elicited reactions from industry operators, following the refusal of the department to invite the company to come and pick it up, more than one week after Dangote Oil and Gas, a company which had preemptive rights for the two blocks, but failed to match the winning bids, officially informed the agency about its withdrawal from the two blocks.
At the bidding conference, held in Abuja Sheraton Hotels and Towers, about a fortnight ago, Conoil had outbid Dangote Oil and Gas, which enjoys a Right of First of First Refusal (RoFR) and three other companies, after it paid $105 for OPl 290 and $110 million for OPL 2007 respectively.
But the later, which has preemptive rights to the blocks had agreed to match the winning bid put up by Conoil and was given up till last Tuesday last week, to match the winning bids.
But following its inability to match the winning bid, the DPR last week invited Conoil, the winning bidder to come for only the OPL 290, but has since remained silent on block 2007.
But the action by the agency has continued to attract criticism from various quarters, as stakeholders view the development as not only capable of eroding the transparency of the exercise but runs contrary to the 2007 bidding round rules, which provides that if the bidder with preemptive right fails to pay, the winning bidder automatically takes up the block.
(C)Chika Amanze-Nwachuku--Thisday
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