$16bn Egina Project: Senate Directs Suspension Of Further Variations, Commences Audit

The Senate Ad hoc Committee on Investigation of Local Content Element on Egina Oil Field and other related Projects , has directed the suspension of further variations on the Total Upstream Nigeria Limited 16.3 Billion dollar Egina Deep Sea Oil Project.

The Chairman of the committee, Sen. Solomon Adeola, gave the directive in a statement by his Media Adviser, Mr Kayode Odunaro in Abuja on Thursday.

Adeola said the directive followed Senate’s resolution to pay consultants to do a ”Value for Money Audit” of the Egina project.

He said after a two billion dollar variation on the project, there was proposal for another one billion dollar variation.

He stressed that there was need to get detailed explanation of the variations by various sub contractors to Total Upstream Nigeria Limited, the major operator of the project.

He said “the audit would last for 16 weeks by consultants paid by the Senate to ensure independent account instead of being carried out by NNPC/NAPIMS as required by the contractual agreement.

He decried that over the five year period of the project no audit of any kind has been carried out.

Mr. Nicolas Terraz, Managing Director of Total Upstream Nigeria Limited, stated that as the major operator of the project, it would continue to assist the committee in its investigations.

Meanwhile, Adeola said the committee would report  the illegal status of one Young Ho Jo, to the Ministry of Interior.

Adeola said findings indicated that Jo, claimed to be the Managing Director of Samsung Nigeria Limited and had been working in Nigeria for the past two months without fulfilling legal requirements.

He stressed that the Nigeria Content Development Monitoring Board (NCMDB) had reported  the alleged illegality to the Ministry of Interior for possible deportation as an illegal immigrant.

“The man came to us to say he is the MD of Samsung and his documentation could not be completed because of the breakdown of the machines of NCMDB.

“Meanwhile the NCMBD wrote to us saying that their machine had never broken down in the period claimed, showing that the man had contravened the Local Content law,”he said.