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Nigeria Considers Renegotiating Oil Contracts
06-02-2008
"Nigeria will increase control of its oil and gas
industry, improve infrastructure and restore peace in the Niger Delta region"
President Umaru Yar’Adua said.
“All our plans are coming
to fruition in almost all the critical sectors,” he added in an interview
broadcast live on state television last night to mark his first year in office.
The Nigerian president denied he has been slow in dealing with the country’s
problems and said he had secured funds from oil companies to finance social
spending. The government plans to end power shortages by renegotiating terms for
natural gas exploration agreements with international oil companies to ensure
supplies for the domestic market.
The president said gas export agreements already signed by oil and gas companies
will have to be renegotiated over the next seven years to accommodate Nigeria’s
needs. The country “realizes the critical importance of gas to the national
economy,” he said.
The government this month said it would take steps to recover $1.9 billion in
revenue and taxes it says is owed by Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Exxon Mobil Corp.
“We’ve just signed agreements with Shell, Exxon Mobil and Total to take care of
cash call obligations,” Yar’Adua said. “We’ll release the funds to the education
and social sectors.”
Exxon Mobil reiterated that it “pays all its taxes and royalties in accordance
with the law,” Yemi Fakayejo, the company’s spokesman in Nigeria said,
commenting on Yar’Adua’s remarks.
The government plans to hold a meeting with communities’ representatives and
militants to calm the insurgency in the oil- producing Niger Delta, Yar’Adua
said. The government and the local communities must find ways of stopping of
criminal gangs from selling stolen crude oil to tankers offshore, he said.
“You have within the nation criminals stealing crude oil that is loaded into
barges and taken to the high seas to supply tankers which pay millions of
dollars and also supply them arms,” he said.
Yar’Adua defended a judicial decision to conduct a closed trial for Henry Okah,
the suspected leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta,
which claims responsibility for most of the attacks that have cut about 20
percent of the country’s oil exports since early 2006.
Okah was arrested in Angola in September last year on suspicions of gun-running
and extradited to Nigeria in February where he as been charged with treason,
terrorism and weapons trafficking.
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