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Investors, indigenes warn FG on cancelation of oil-blocks awarded to Niger Deltans
Some investors and representatives communities in Niger Delta have condemned the Federal Government’s cancellation of Oil Prospecting Licences (OPL) 2001, 2002 and 2003 in the Utapate Field, stating that it is capable of re-igniting chaos in the Niger Delta region.
The investors affected by the cancellation are Jahcon International Limited, Hi Rev Exploration and Production Limited, as well as Oil and Industrial Services Limited.
Addressing newsmen in Abuja, representatives of some of the investors disclosed that after they won the bids for the blocks in 2007, the bid round was stalled for eight years by litigation until it was resolved amicably in 2015.
After the resolution, the representatives who chose not to be named for fear of victimisation, said the Department of Petroleum Resources handed offers of OPLs 2001, 2002 and 2003 to Jahcon International Limited, Hi Rev Exploration and Production Limited, as well as Oil and Industrial Services Limited, respectively.
The representative of one of the major investors in OPL 2001 stated that many Niger Delta indigenes were pained by the action of the President in revoking the licences of citizens from the oil rich region without carrying out thorough consultations.
The investor stated that angry youths were already threatening to stop any attempt by the NPDC to commence work on the oil field, adding that traditional rulers, as well as investors who won the blocks during the bid round had been engaged in calming several agitators.
For investors in OPL 2002, they noted that although the court had directed all parties to stay action with respect to working on the field, officials of the NPDC recently made moves to commence activities on the field.
However, in his reaction, Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of the NNPC, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, confirmed the development and stated that the case was in court and that the NNPC and its subsidiary, NPDC, would abide by the rulings of the court.
Ughamadu said, “I don’t want to comment on what they are dishing out because we are already in court. We have made two appearances in court on this matter. It is only the court that resolves issues like this and if it rules tomorrow that the decision taken on Party A is wrong, then we will abide by the ruling of the court.
“This, however, is subject to the advice of our legal adviser, because the corporation is a law abiding corporate institution. If they want to exhaust the case in court they should go ahead, but if they want public debate on it, they should also go ahead, for they are also at the National Assembly on this matter.”
Meanwhile, copies of the letters which were issued to the investors on June 16, 2015 by the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, were made available to journalists, in which the DPR confirmed the three investors as successful bidders for the blocks and directed them to make the required payments as signature bonuses for the licences.
The representatives said two of the firms, Jahcon International Limited and Oil and Industrial Services Limited made complete payments, while Hi Rev Exploration and Production Limited made part payment and is still in the process of completing its transaction with the DPR.
The representatives stated that regardless of all these, President Muhammadu Buhari approved a request by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation demanding the withdrawal of the licences from the investors and handing over the oil blocks to the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, NPDC, subsidiary of the NNPC.
In the NNPC’s letter of request to Buhari, dated December 20, 2016, shown to newsmen, the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mr. Maikanti Baru acknowledged that OPLs 2001, 2002 and 2003 in OML 13, which were recovered from Shell by the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, were “inadvertently revoked” by Obasanjo’s administration and “back-converted to greenfield OPL before being resized into OPLs 2001, 2002 and 2003 and offered under the 2007 Licensing Round.”
However, the investors argued that Maikanti’s letter, which insisted that the OPLs belong to NPDC, did not disclose that NPDC also submitted a bid for one of the blocks in the 2007 open licensing round but lost as a result of low bid.
They argued that Baru’s claim that the oil field belong to NPDC, a core partner in the field when it was operated by Shell, was baseless on the ground that the government revoked the possession of the oil field by Shell and opened it up to investors in the 2007 bid rounds.
The investors further alleged that Baru forwarded the NNPC’s request directly to the president without seeking legal advice from the Ministry of Justice, or consulting the Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu.
In the letter, the NNPC boss also requested the President to grant approval for NPDC to bear the refund to the offerees of OPLs 2001 and 2003 for the sums of $46 million and $34 million respectively, and thus absolve DPR of such refund obligation.
It was observed that Buhari approved the letter the same day that it was brought to him by Baru, which was on December 20, 2016, and his comment on the request was “GMD, prayer approved.”
After the President’s approval, Chief of Staff to the President, Mr. Abba Kyari, wrote a letter to the NNPC boss on December 20, 2016, conveying the President’s approval of the corporation’s request with respect to the withdrawal of the OPLs from the awardees and handing it over to NPDC.
Afterwards, On December 21, 2016, Baru wrote a letter to the DPR conveying the presidential approval for the restoration of the oil field to NPDC.
As a result, Director of DPR, Mr. Mordecai Ladan, wrote two letters, dated February 15, 2017, informing Jahcon International Limited and Oil and Industrial Services Limited of the revocations of the acreages, citing “a review of the reconversion process of the former OML 13 to OPLs 2001, 2002 and 2003.”
A new technology transfer agreement between the Nigeria–China Strategic Partnership (NCSP) and the Presidential Implementation Committee on Technology Transfer (PICTT) is expected to open more job opportunities, improve local skills, and expand access to advanced technology for ordinary Nigerians.
In a press statement reaching Vanguard on Friday, the MoU aims to strengthen industrial development, support local content, and create clearer pathways for Nigerians to benefit from China’s growing investments in the country.
PICTT Chairman, Dr Dahiru Mohammed, said the partnership will immediately begin coordinated programmes that support local participation in infrastructure and industrial projects.
Special Adviser to the President on Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr John Uwajumogu, said the deal will help attract high value investments that can stimulate job creation and strengthen Nigeria’s economy.
NCSP Head of International Relations, Ms Judy Melifonwu, highlighted that Nigerians stand to gain from expanded STEM scholarships, technical training, access to modern technology, and collaboration across key sectors including steel, agriculture, automobile parks, and cultural industries.
The NCSP Director-General reaffirmed the organisation’s commitment to measurable results, noting that the partnership with PICTT will prioritise initiatives that deliver direct national impact.
The MoU signals a new phase of Nigeria–China cooperation focused on practical delivery, local content, and opportunities that improve everyday livelihoods.
EU regulators launched an antitrust investigation into Meta Platforms on Thursday over its rollout of artificial intelligence features in its WhatsApp messenger that would block rivals, hardening Europe’s already tough stance on Big Tech. The move, reported earlier by Reuters and the Financial Times, is the latest action by European Union regulators against large technology firms such as Amazon and Alphabet’s Google as the bloc seeks to balance support for the sector with efforts to curb its expanding influence.
Europe’s tough stance – a marked contrast to more lenient U.S. regulation – has sparked an industry pushback, particularly by U.S. tech titans, and led to criticism from the administration of U. S. President Donald Trump. The European Commission said that the investigation will look into Meta’s new policy that would limit other AI providers’ access to WhatsApp, a potential boost for its own Meta AI system integrated into the platform earlier this year.
EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera said the move was to prevent dominant firms from “abusing their power to crowd out innovative competitors”. She added interim measures could be imposed to block Meta’s new WhatsApp AI policy rollout. “AI markets are booming in Europe and beyond,” she said. This is why we are investigating if Meta’s new policy might be illegal under competition rules, and whether we should act quickly to prevent any possible irreparable harm to competition in the AI space.”
A WhatsApp spokesperson called the claims “baseless”, adding that the emergence of chatbots on its platforms had put a “strain on our systems that they were not designed to support”, a reference to AI systems from other providers. “Still, the AI space is highly competitive and people have access to the services of their choice in any number of ways, including app stores, search engines, email services, partnership integrations, and operating systems.” The EU was the first in the world to establish a comprehensive legal framework for AI, setting out guardrails for AI systems and rules for certain high-risk applications in the AI Act.
Meta AI, a chatbot and virtual assistant, has been built into WhatsApp’s interface across European markets since March. The Commission said a new policy fully applicable from January 15, 2026, may block competing AI providers from reaching customers via the platform. Ribera said the probe came on the back of complaints from small AI developers about the WhatsApp policy. The Interaction Company of California, which has developed AI assistant Poke.com, has taken its grievance to the EU competition enforcer. Spanish AI startup Luzia has also talked to the Commission, a person with knowledge of the matter said.
Marvin von Hagen, co-founder and CEO of The Interaction Company of California, said if Meta was allowed to roll out its new policy, “millions of European consumers will be deprived of the possibility of enjoying new and innovative AI assistants”. Meta also risks a fine of as much as 10% of its global annual turnover if found guilty of breaching EU antitrust rules.
Italy’s antitrust watchdog opened a parallel investigation in July into allegations that Meta leveraged its market power by integrating an AI tool into WhatsApp, expanding the probe in November to examine whether Meta further abused its dominance by blocking rival AI chatbots from the messaging platform. The antitrust probe is a more traditional means of investigation than the EU’s Digital Markets Act, the bloc’s landmark legislation currently used to scrutinize Amazon’s and Microsoft’s cloud services for potential curbs. Reuters
The spouses and children of billionaires inherited more wealth in 2025 than in any previous year since reporting began in 2015, according to UBS’s Billionaire Ambitions Report published on Thursday. In the 12 months to April, 91 people became billionaires through inheritance, collectively receiving $298 billion, up more than a third from 2024, the Swiss bank said. “These heirs are proof of a multi-year wealth transfer that’s intensifying,” UBS executive Benjamin Cavalli said.
The report is based on a survey of some of UBS’s super-rich clients and a database that tracks the wealth of billionaires across 47 markets in all world regions. At least $5.9 trillion will be inherited by billionaire children over the next 15 years, the bank calculates.
Most of this inheritance growth is set to take place in the United States, with India, France, Germany and Switzerland next on the list, UBS estimated. However, billionaires are highly mobile, especially younger ones, which could change that picture, it added. The search for a better quality of life, geopolitical concerns and tax considerations are driving decisions to relocate, according to the report.
In Switzerland, where $206 billion will be inherited over the next 15 years according to the bank, voters on Sunday overwhelmingly rejected 50 per cent tax on inherited fortunes of $62 million or more, after critics said it could trigger an exodus of wealthy people.
Switzerland, the UAE, the U.S. and Singapore are among billionaires’ preferred destinations, UBS’s Cavalli said. “In Switzerland, Sunday’s vote may have helped to increase the country’s appeal again,” he said. Reuters
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