Firm Gives Reasons for Exposing Corruption in OML 30 Pipeline Contract

An indigenous oil and gas service company providing security protection for critical production facilities and sundry services, Eraskorp Nigeria Limited (ENL), has explained its decision to go public on the controversial re-award of the Trans Forcados Pipeline (TFP) surveillance Contract to Ocean Marine Solutions (OMS) Limited. Eraskorp gave national interest and belief in the anti-corruption fight of President Muhammadu Buhari as reasons.

Eraskorp in an earlier public statement had revealed how the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) planned to re-award the Contract to OMS “in flagrant violation of laid down procurement procedures, and against the wise counsel of all stakeholders in the Oil Mining License (OML) 30; including the JV Partners, Operator, and the 111 communities in the oil field”.

It also exposed the alleged over inflation of the contract from US$1.5 million per month, but re-awarded to OMS for the sum of US$3.69 million while also cataloguing alleged history of non-performance by OMS in the oil industry.

In response OMS denied any wrong doing and accused Eraskorp and Shoreline Natural Resources of “a crude smear campaign orchestrated by desperate factions who are fearful that their lucrative abuse of the TFP will be over if OMS takes over the responsibility for security and surveillance.”

But in a counter response to OMS, Eraskorp said OMS and its owner Captain Idahosa Okunbo, merely embarked on a “macabre dance” to “ launder their battered image and douse the stench of the raging contract scandal.”

Eraskorp insisted that OMS has failed to answer the most critical questions that Nigerians will want answered but instead, engaged in “media shadow boxing”

The firm described as “redundant falsehood” allegation by OMS that it “was responsible for the loss of 11 million barrels of oil or US$800 million in revenues while it was providing security surveillance for OML 30 pipelines.

“ We challenge OMS and their collaborators in NNPC to provide Nigerians with cogent evidence of this spurious claim. The simple truth is that Eraskorp is not in charge of Operation & Maintenance (O&M) services in OML 30, and a surveillance contractor cannot be held liable for production shut-ins due to technical hitches.

According to the firm, those questions begging for answers include:

 How much is NNPC paying OMS monthly from taxpayers’ money to protect Escravos-Warri and Bonny–Port Harcourt, which are non-functional pipelines?

 How can OMS claim to have eliminated illegal bunkering and oil theft on those lines when the refineries are inactive, and crude is not transported through the lines?

 Why is OMS (with no history of job execution for the IOCs) the only company continually approached by the NNPC and invited to “help with” surveillance contracts?

 Is NNPC’s refusal to follow due process in re-awarding the TFP Contract anchored on the knowledge that OMS cannot meet the eligibility criteria for public tender, as provided in the Public Procurement Act (since its Directors cannot pass the fit and proper test)?

 Why is OMS waging a sinister smear campaign against NNPC’s JV Partners in OML 30, on account of the latter’s principled and patriotic refusal to sign a contract which makes neither economic nor business sense?

Eraskorp further observed that: “Ever since the scandalous deal became public knowledge, OMS has deployed enormous resources to wage a fierce and murky media campaign; all in the bid to justify a deal widely perceived as a serious dent on President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption war.”