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, PREMIUM TIMES has learned.
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 of 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 companies, 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 the 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
giving 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 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 of 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.
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, authorities
said.
Premiumtimes
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