Fred Itua, Abuja
The Senate, yesterday, approved the payment of N68.9 billion as part of outstanding subsidy claims to 20 oil marketers.
A breakdown of the figure shows that while the Senate approved the payment of N10.8 billion as subsidy claim to Tanzila Petroleum Company, it approved N58.1 billion for 19 oil marketing companies.
Some of the oil marketers iclude Conoil, Oando, A&E Petroleum, Matrix Energy, Ontario Oil & Gas Limited, Swift Oil Limited and Honeywell (HOGL).
Others are Blacklight, Fatgbems Petroleum, Forte Oil, Frado International, Tempogate Oil, Linc Nigeria Limited, IPMAN Investment, Hudson Petroleum among others.
The approval followed the adoption of the report of its Committee on Petroleum Downstream on the Promissory Note Programme and a Bond Issuance to Settle Inherited Local Debts and Contractual Obligations to Petroleum Marketers.
Presenting the report, Chairman of the Senate Committee Petroleum Downstream, Kabiru Marafa, observed that there were differences in submissions made by the Federal Ministry of Finance, Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) and oil marketers.
He attributed the discrepancies to the use of different input parameters for the calculation of the subsidy payable value.
“The differing calculation processes which couldn’t define the step used to arrive at the total subsidy due value (e.g. it could not be defermined if simple or compound interest method was adopted in the computation or the interest was computed on the forex differential element amongst others).
“The internal inconsistencies which do not follow the set processing parameters by the government agencies,” the report of the panel read.
Some of the oil marketers and the amount approved for them include: Ontario Oil & Gas Limited N9.8billion, Conoil N8.3billion, Oando N4.9billion, Matrix N4.6 billion, Honeywell (HOGL) N4.3 billion and Swift Oil Limited N4 billion.
Others are: Forte Oil PLC N3.8 billion, Blacklight N3.7 billion, Stallionaire N3 billion, Tempogate Oil N2.3 billion among others.