The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) has refuted claims that it awarded a contract to build an oil depot to a non-existent company, Novertek Energy Limited.
NMDPRA spokesperson, George Ene-Ita, in a statement on Friday, debunked the awarded contract, stating that it grants licences and permits for building facilities like petroleum product depots, not construction contracts.
The statement read in part, “The report went on to wrongly assert that the NMDPRA, in violation of established Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) guidelines, awarded a contract for the construction of 500 metric tonnes of a Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) depot to a “… non-existent company called Novertek Energy Limited.”
“We would like to state clearly that the Authority is only mandated by the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA 2021) to issue licences and permits for the establishment of facilities such as petroleum product depots in Nigeria, among other statutory functions. We do not, however, award contracts for the actual construction of these facilities.”
The award and issuance of such contracts, Ene-Ita noted, fall within the purview of the successful licensee once such proponents meet the demands of our stringent requirements.
Ene-Ita added that companies seeking licences must be registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).
She said, “One of such requirements, of course, is that companies who apply for our licenses and permits must primarily be registered by the CAC. A diligent search within our records confirms that we do not have any pending applications with any company by the above-stated name.”
The NMDPRA spokesperson stated that the agency is currently processing an application for a company called Noretek Energy Limited, which is duly registered with the CAC and has met our preliminary requirements to be granted an “ATC” (Authority To Construct) a Depot for the storage of 500 Metric Tonnes (MT) of LPG in the Abuja area.
During this phase, it is expected that Noretek would propose to engage various contractors to provide several specialised services that would support the process of constructing the depot, Ene-Ita stated.
He added that these service providers must also meet the authority’s requirements to be granted the requisite permits to offer the services.
