ConOil, owned by Nigeria’s second richest man is being
pursued for a combined debt of over $140.5 million by two foreign and one local
companies, According to PREMIUM TIMES.
Despite making several pledges to pay, ConOil and other
companies owned by Mr. Adenuga have reneged on paying the debts, multiple
sources in the oil and gas sector have told this newspaper.
Things have got so bad that some of the creditor
companies have either commenced or are considering commencing legal actions to
force the billionaire businessman to pay up having exhausted all options to
make him honour promises and agreement to pay.
In fact, one company has successful secured an interim
order from a federal court to place one of Mr Adenuga’s companies under
receivership.
The increasing debt profile of the telecom and oil mogul,
who increased his net worth by almost $5 billion in the last year, according to
luxury lifestyle magazine, Forbes, has hit some his creditors so hard that they
had to shut down some of their operations.
One of such companies is Depthwize, a local oil servicing
company, which is owed $40 million by ConOil.
The refusal of the management of ConOil to pay Depthwize,
a small drilling contractor has forced the company to lay off workers and shut
down services on two of ConOil’s rigs until the money is paid, those familiar
with the matter said.
“Depthwize says it can no longer afford the day to day
running cost of working on the rigs,” one source said.
Similarly, American oil and gas firm, Baker Hughes, was
forced to lodge a court petition to wind up one of Mr Adenuga’s company, Belbop
Nigeria Limited, over a USD $12.09 million bill they had been unsuccessfully
trying to get the company to pay.
Baker Hughes argued that in 2009, Belbop awarded it a
contract for the provision of directional drilling, MWD/LWD services and supply
of drilling fluids and drilling bits, Logging cabin and surface acquisition
system.
The company told the court that after it duly discharge
its obligation and rendered all requisite services, Belbop refused to pay.
Baker Hughes said it incurred a liability of $9.4 million in the course of
executing the contract.
On April 12, 2016, Babs Kuewumi of the Federal High Court
in Lagos placed an interim injunction on the accounts of Belbop pending the
determination of suit.
The judge therefore appointed the Chief Registrar of the
Federal High Court as the receiver/manager of Belbop until the substantive suit
is determined.
Mr Adenuga has also been given multinational oil firm,
Total, the runaround over a $28.5 million debt it owed the French oil giant
since 2009.
Although Total has been trying to resolve the debt
without litigation, the refusal of Mr. Adenuga to pay the debt has forced the
company to stop work at OML 136 gas field. Total is ConOil’s technical partner
in the project.
At a meeting held with Total in November 2015, it was
agreed that ConOil would pay the $28.5 million dollars owed before January 31
2016.
That meeting, which minutes is in the possession of
PREMIUM TIMES, was chaired by Mr. Adenuga and attended by four executives from
Total.
But those familiar with the matter told this newspaper
Mr. Adenuga’s company is yet to pay up. All attempts by Total to make him
release the money have also failed, insiders said.
Some said they are baffled by Mr Adenuga’s refusal to pay
Total the $28.5 million, which would have seen work commence on the lucrative
oil field.
The OML 136 asset is considered to be one of the largest
gas fields in Nigeria, with a proven reserve of 11 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of
gas. The exploration of the oil assets would have boosted Nigeria’s economy by
creating jobs and would have yielded massive return to Total and ConOil, they
explained.
When contacted, Total’s spokesperson, Charles Ogan, in an
email to PREMIUM TIMES, said the matter is an “obvious internal administrative
subject.”
Also, ConOil is engaged in a decade-long dispute with
British oil firm, Vitol, over its alleged failure to pay a $60 million debt
incurred from lifting of cargoes of refined petroleum products.
Vitol secured a court judgement in the UK in respect of
the debt but has been unable to enforce it in Nigeria because ConOil got a stay
of execution from a Nigerian court.
Conoil’s financial problems, PREMIUM TIMES gathered, may
have been caused by Mr Adenuga’s slowness in taking advantage in potential
money earners for the company.
For instance, in 2005, ConOil was granted exploration
licence for OPL 257 by the federal government, but the company surprisingly
left the block fallow until its licence expired. Now it is frantically asking
the government for a two-year extension of its expired licence to enable it
explore the field.
On January 22, 2016, Taiwo Olushina, the managing
director of ConOil, wrote a letter to the National Petroleum Investment
Management Services (NAPIMS) blaming insecurity, high cost of drilling and
technical hitches for its failure to explore the field before the expiration of
the licence.
“Having attended to technical and financial challenges
peculiar to ultra -deep offshore blocks, this approval will provide us with
ample time in drilling three identified prospective locations in preparation
for further development towards boosting national oil and gas reserves and
production,” the letter read in part.
The spokesperson for Mr. Adenuga, Bode Opeseitan, could
not be reached to comment for this story. He did not answer or return calls
seeking comment.
Another spokesperson ducked when approached by this
reporter to comment for this story.
Despite being identified by Truecaller app, Mike Oduniyi
told PREMIUM TIMES that we had reached a wrong number and promptly terminated
the call.
Tax palaver and bad loan
Mr Adenuga’s companies have also had tax issues in the
recent past. In 2009, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) sealed the
Lagos office of ConOil, and Continental Oil and Gas, another company owned by
the businessman, over the non-remittance of $610 million tax to government.
Last month, seven years after his companies were first
sealed, the FIRS shut the Lagos office of Globacom, the second largest mobile
telephone company in the country, owned by the billionaire, for allegedly
failing to remit Value Added Tax worth N24.3 billion.
Earlier in February this year, the Osun State Internal
Revenue Service (OIRS) sealed the offices of the telecommunication firm in the
state for failing to pay outstanding taxes and other levies in respect of mast/
base stations and laying of fibre optics.
The state said several meetings were held with the
company’s representatives in the past three years to resolve the issue, but
that the company failed to comply.
The Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) also
listed Mr. Adenuga as one of the country’s biggest debtors for a N2.4billion
loan his real estate company, Convenant Apartments Complex Limited, took from
Wema Bank.
AMCON acquired the loan from the bank in 2010, after
Convenant Apartments failed to pay up.
Credit: Premium Times
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