The Nigerian government is in talks with the United States oil firm Chevron and Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell over the renewal of their shallow water oil licences, an official statement said on Tuesday.
“Chevron and Shell are still in negotiations with the Federal Government… over the renewal of their expired licences,” a statement by the ministry of petroleum resources quoted junior oil minister Odein Ajumogobia as saying.
The statement dispelled media reports that the renewal of the licences was stalled due to the absence of President Umaru Yar’Adua.
Yar’Adua left Nigeria on November 23 and has since been receiving treatment in a Saudi Arabia hospital for a heart ailment.
“The minister of petroleum resources has the full authority under extant laws to renew leases and licences,” the statement said, underlining that no specific authorisation from the presidency was required.
Nigeria’s state-run oil giant Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in May 2008 signed an oil-financing deal worth two billion dollars with the United States oil firm, Mobil Producing Nigeria (MPN).
NNPC said the new deal — which represents a modification of an existing agreement — provides for repayment on a “cash basis,” not with oil as was the case in the past.
MPN is a subsidiary of American Exxon Mobil Corporation, and the second-largest oil producer in Nigeria.
A similar deal worth one billion dollars was sealed same month between the NNPC and French group Elf Petroleum Nigeria Limited (EPNL).