The suit was
filed at a Federal high Court in Lagos by the oil minister, which is President
Muhammadu Buhari.
Nigeria has
sued an oil exploration production company, ALLIED ENERGY PLC , owned by
Texas-based billionaire Kase Luqmon Lawal to demand $35.7million debt.
The amount in
question was for royalty on oil and gas production, concession rental and gas
flaring penalty.
In a
statement of claim, assistant director, planning Division of the Department of
petroleum resources Efe Bassey, alleged that Allied Energy PLC in receivership,
in the course of its mainstream business, applied for and was granted an oil
mining lease number 120(OML120) and oil mining lease number 121(OML121) for the
exploration and production of petroleum oil and gas assets.
Upon the
grant of the aforesaid OMLS by minister of petroleum resources, Allied Energy
PLC operated the oil blocks covered by OMLS, taking full benefits of the
exclusive right to prospect, explore, produce and undertake marketing of crude
assets in commercial quantities in the leased areas without let or hindrance
whatsoever.
As the
operator of the OMLS, the Allied Energy PLC was bound to fulfil counterpart
obligations of ensuring prompt remittance of statutorily fixed sum of money
representing the royalty on oil and gas production, concession rental and gas
flaring penalty due to the Federal Government through the office of the minister
of petroleum resources.
However,
Allied Energy PLC was alleged to have failed, refused and neglected to make
these remittance to the Federal Government.
These
include, but not limited to the royalties for oil production from the relevant
oil blocks in the sum of $34,662,933.32 and gas flared penalty in the sum of
$1,085,331.50 for various years dating back to 2009.
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