FG insists Zabazaba project will continue despite controversies

The federal government has insisted that the the Zabazaba project and all other projects associated with the controversial Oil Prospecting License (245) will go on despite controversies surrounding the oil block.

Speaking on Wednesday during a world press conference on the sideline of 2017 Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston, Texas, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, argued that because the deal has been signed, it will go on while the necessary agencies will work on how to retrieve alleged payment of $1.3billion to private individuals.

According to him, “The Malabu issue continues to be a source of worry, it happened before this administration and it is also in court. For those who do not know, it has to do with allegations of over $1billion illegally being paid in a private payment by some officials both from Nigerians and non-Nigerians to consummate the transactions.

“This issue is being handled by various bodies in Nigeria with actions going on in France as well as in other countries that were involved. The fact are there, my training as a lawyer is that I try not to comment on issues that are in court but wait and see what the facts are. But there is a difference between recovery and dealing with the benefits of the block itself.

“The Zabazaba and whatever projects that have been signed on to will have to be executed. They have nothing to do with the recovery of the money. I believe we should keep trailing the money and get it. Once there is a question mark regarding the transaction you did historically, you need to come clean to the table. If there is one billion dollars paid illegally to some individuals instead of paying to the government, that money should be recovered. In the next coming month, we are going to be sitting down, different from what the EFCC is doing, to say we need to talk. This is because two things would happen.”

He said the focus should be shifted to the benefits from investment in the oil block while government focus of hoe to recover any money meant for it if proven.

“Without any bias to the project which I said must be continued, these are huge billions of investments in Nigeria, so I’m not going to shut that down. But if infact, there are question marks coming apparently from all the data that we have seen, we need to sit you down and ask, ‘there is a one billion dollars lying down there probably with the wrong person, we need to sit down and discuss how we recover that one billion dollars. And therefore give you a clean bill of health.’

“Obviously, the issue of the criminality is a different thing altogether. That’s outside my realm but those in the best position to handle that. My realm is to make sure investment goes ahead. We are not happy with what happened but if we should be able to recover the money without casting aspersions because I don’t have the data,” he said.

The federal government, Shell and the Nigerian Agip Exploration Limited (NAE) seems set to sign the Final Investment Decision (FID) for the $13.5 billion Zabazaba Deepwater project located in Oil Prospecting Lease (OPL) 245 in the second quarter of this year.
The Zabazaba Deepwater is a Greenfield offshore licence block located in the controversial OPL 245 in the eastern portion of the Niger Delta with water depths ranging from 1,200 to 2,400 metres.