Acreage /Marginal fields award controversies : Buhari removes Auwalu, nominates Farouk Ahmed on NPRA board
…experts hail Farouk Ahmed, Ex-MD PPMC, Ex-ES PPPRA
Investigations by Nigerian NewsDirect has uncovered facts behind the removal of Director, Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) Engineer Auwalu Sarki as the Chief Executive Officer on the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NPRA) board. This agency for midstream and downstream was created following the signing of the PIA.
The Senate had announced the receipt of a request from President Muhammadu Buhari to replace the nomination of Engr. Sarki Auwalu as the Chief Executive Officer on the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NPRA) board. This marks the second action being taken by President Buhari on the implementation of PIA. Recently, Buhari had sent request to the National Assembly for amendment of the PIA Act to ensure equal representative on the board by all geopolitical zones and removal of the Petroleum as well as the Finance Ministers from the board of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) saying that they can continue to perform their functions without necessarily being members of the board.
President Buhari, in his new request received by the upper chamber, sought the replacement of Sarki Auwalu with Engr. Farouk A. Ahmed as Chief Executive Officer known to be a midstream and downstream management expert.
Ahmed hailed by industry experts as the best choice for CEO NPRA was former Executive Secretary of Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA). This follows his effective coordination of products supply as the Managing Director of Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC).
The request for replacement of Auwalu was contained in a letter dated September 28, 2021, and read by the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, during plenary on Wednesday.
The President in a previous letter dated September 16, 2021, had requested the upper chamber to confirm Auwalu alongside three others as board members of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority.
Buhari explained that the replacement request was duly in accordance with the provision of Section 34(3) of the Petroleum Industry Act 2021.
Findings by Nigerian NewsDirect revealed that President Buhari was advised to replace him over alleged poor management of acreage awards and 2021 marginal fields awards exercise completed recently, which exposed the alleged incompetence of Engineer Sarki who was promoted from Assistant Director to Director of DPR despite having four steps to qualify for the position. As at the time of his appointment as DPR director, there were four deputy directors who were retired after his resumption.
The source asserted that Buhari was advised to replace him with an oil industry expert who has the wealth of experience to manage the new board created as a follow up to the signing of the Petroleum Industry Act.
On the acreage award, industry operators had fumed over failure of the Presidency to address poor process of revoking – OMLs 123, 124, 126 and 137 – all operated by Addax Petroleum Development Nigeria Limited and awarded them to Kaztec Engineering Limited/Salvic Petroleum Resources Limited.
The consortium, (KEL/Salvic), is owned by oil magnate, Emeka Offor, who is a close ally of Sylva, Daura and the Director of the Department of Petroleum Resources, Auwalu Sarki.
The decision to hurriedly sell the OMLs early this year was conveyed in a letter signed by Auwalu as the Director of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).
OMLs 123 and 124 were expected to expire in 2022 while OMLs 126 and 137 will expire in December 2024 and May 2027 respectively, according to the Nigerian Oil Industry Annual Report published by the DPR.
Also, his removal also follows alleged controversy over alleged transparency of the marginal fields 2020 bid round processes which worsened the confidence of participants following alleged hijack by money bags that acquired some of the fields offered by the DPR.
According to the 2020 guideline, a marginal field is any field that has oil and gas reserves booked and reported annually to the Department of Petroleum Resources ( DPR) and has remained undeveloped for a period of over 10 years.
Money bags acting as promoters of Indigenous companies as sponsors allegedly sponsored more than two companies as bidders for different fields since the Federal Government decided to use the programme to generate about $500million needed to support 2021 budget.
The director allegedly capitalised on the need for money by the Federal Government to deny those with technical knowledge among the indigenous companies to win the fields awarded. The process was riddled with secrecy compared to the global industry standard of opening of bids publicly.
Some of the disgruntled participants alleged that the DPR directed some of the winners to pay a percentage of the signature bonus to the Treasury Single Account (TSA) of the Federal Government without knowing the owner of the remaining percentage. In line with the guideline, participants are also baffled with the secrecy of the process whereby they were directed to pay into the NDR account of the DPR the same fraction of fees for data prying, competent persons report (CPR) and field specific report among others.
PROFILE OF FAROUK
Mr. Ahmed is a graduate of Southern Illinois University Carbondale, USA where he obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering Technology. He commenced his career as a Logic Board Verification Engineer at Apple Computer Inc. (later called Apple Inc.), in Dallas, Tx. USA.
He returned to Nigeria to honour the call to serve his fatherland under the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and later joined the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) where he grew through the ranks and spent thirty-two meritorious years. Mr. Ahmed has a sound commercial and trading background and has held several senior positions over the 34 years spanning his professional career in the oil and gas industry including the positions of:
Senior Crude Oil Trader – Duke Oil Inc.;
Manager – Crude Oil Export Programming and Nominations, Shipping and Terminals (Crude Oil Marketing Division-NNPC);
Executive Director-Commercial – Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC);
Managing Director – NiDAS Marine Limited;
Executive Secretary – Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Authority (PPPRA);
Managing Director – PPMC;
Special Adviser (Downstream) to the GMD-NNPC.
Mr. Ahmed is a Member of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE); Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE-USA) and a Registered member of the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN).
He was a member of the Governing Board of the Nigerian Shippers Council and is currently the MD/CEO – Hauwath Consulting Limited.
