The Nigerian Senate yesterday commenced investigation into the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) Gas Expansion intervention loan of N135 billion, given to 15 oil and gas companies.
The companies were summoned by the Senate Committee on Gas to appear before her with their progress reports, stating location and the current status of the projects.
Chairman of the Committee, Senator Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe said, NIPCO Gas Ltd obtained N25 billion loan, NIPCO Plc (N5 billion), Hyde Energy Ltd (N2 billion), and Lee Engineering and Construction Company (N15 billion) from the intervention fund.
Others are Pinnacle Oil And Gas FZE (N10 billion), Transit Gas Limited (N8 billion), Amalgamated Oil Company Nig. Ltd (N5 billion) and Gas Nexus Ltd (N10 billion).
First Modular Gas Systems Limited got N4.3 billion, Novagas Limited (N1 billion), Greenville Liquified Natural Gas Company (N10 billion) and AP LPG Limited (N8 billion).
Dangote Oil Refinery (N5 billion), Delta State Government (N20 billion) and Mob Integrated Services Limited (N2.5 billion).
Senator Jarigbe explained that the committee have observed that some of the oil and gas companies did not utilise the fund for the purpose for which it was obtained.
The Committee Chairman stated that the Senate will not hesitate to invoke its constitutional powers to ensure that defaulting companies are sanctioned.
“The task of the committee is to ensure that the companies expend the funds on what they were collected for”.
Jarigbe complained that some of the companies did not follow the guidelines and standard procedures before obtaining the loan.
“Some of the beneficiaries did not follow the guidelines. For instance, the Ministry of Petroleum Resources is not even aware that the funds have been released”.
“The guidelines stated clearly, without ambiguity, that loan requests are supposed to be evaluated by the Ministry before the list of qualified companies are sent to the CBN for them to access the loans, but that was not adhered to.
He claimed a preliminary investigation conducted by the committee indicated that some of the companies did not embark on any project since they received the loans.
“We have also discovered that some of the companies do not have anything on the ground since they got the loan.
“The committee would investigate all the observations, evaluate them and let Nigerians know the true position of things.”
The committee thereafter received records of the beneficiaries and the locations of their project sites in order to carry out an on-the-spot assessment and proper investigation.