Industry professionals criticised the contract award, asserting it was too much power for any retail business to wield over the nation.
PEOPLES GAZETTE
Mele Kyari, Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Limited has stealthily awarded juicy rehabilitation contracts of the nation’s pipelines to four oil companies that include two downstream retailers, a move that is tantamount to handing the retailers control of the pipelines at the risk of exploiting other retail outlets and Nigerians at large.
Oilserv Limited, A.A RANO Nigeria Limited, Macready Oil & Gas Service Company Limited, and MRS Oil Nigeria Plc were the four companies awarded the lucrative contracts of maintaining the country’s pipelines to fast track the flow of crude oil to refineries and transport its byproducts back to the country.
Speculations are rife that the Northern cabal is still in charge of the nation’s petroleum sector, despite Muhammadu Buhari’s nepotistic presidency having ended since May, because A.A.Rano Nigeria Limited and MRS Oil Nigeria Plc, two retail businesses owned by two northerners, Auwalu Rano and Sayyu Dantata, respectively, got the highly coveted contracts.
The NNPC GMD has frequently given the two aforementioned businesses, which are mostly merchants of petroleum products, preferential treatment. One such instance was in 2021 when they were both selected for the crude-for-fuel swap contracts to cater to the nation’s motor and jet fuel needs.
But the latest pipeline contracts awarded to the two companies are validating speculations that the Northern cabal is still very much active even after Mr Buhari’s exit.
The contracts were issued on a LOT basis, with MRS Oil securing the juiciest and LOT 4, that oversees depots in the South-West comprising Mosimi–Ore Products Pipeline (151.3km), Ibadan depot, Ilorin depot, Ibadan-Ilorin Products Pipeline (168.9km), Atlas Cove–Mosimi/Satellite Products Pipeline (72.8km), Mosimi depot, Mosimi–Ibadan Products Pipeline (79.1km), Atlas Cove depot and Satellite depot.
