Group items tagged

The House of Representatives on Thursday resolved not to let the N155 billion oil block scandal involving Nigerian government officials, two multinational oil giants (Shell and Agip), and a Nigerian company (Malabu Oil and Gas) be swept under the carpet as legislators decided to investigate the shady deal.

While the House sees a scandal in the transaction, the Senate has said it would not investigate the matter unless there is a formal petition before it. Its spokesman, Eyinnaya Abaribe, in a telephone interview told PREMIUM TIMES that newspaper reports were not enough bases for the upper chamber to investigate such a monumental fraud. “Do we just wake up and start to do our work based on reports in the newspapers?”Mr. Abaribe queried

The law, passed on March 2, allows oil revenue to be used as collateral for loans in a “credit enhancement” program, said Wayne Mitchell, resident representative for the fund, based in Accra, the capital. The risk of default is reduced, which will lower interest rates, he said.

A provision to keep 21 percent of the revenue in a stabilization fund for the country to fall on in times of price volatility and a heritage fund with 9 percent of earnings saved for the future is “best practice,” Mitchell said in an earlier interview on March 2.

Both Tullow Oil and Kosmos Energy have posted scam alerts on their websites. Here’s the warning from Kosmos: NOTE: POTENTIAL RECRUITMENT FRAUD Kosmos Energy has learned that job applicants in the international oil and gas business, as well as other industry sectors, may be contacted by individuals or organizations that offer false employment opportunities. These communications are often via email and may request personal information or money. Kosmos only makes job offers after candidates have completed a formal interview process and does not ask applicants to pay fees during recruitment. Specifically, please note that any communications from or about the “Kosmos Group” are not associated with Kosmos Energy. This is good, but I don’t know how useful these alerts are. There are a lot of people in Takoradi who don’t have internet access. And even when you get to the Tullow or Kosmos websites, it’s not easy to get information.