Chairman of Heirs Holdings and UBA Group Plc, Mr Tony Elumelu, has disclosed how Former President Muhammadu Buhari and his late Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari hindered him from purchasing a $2.5bn oilfield.
Elumelu’s investment company, Heir Holdings, had approached the Buhari administration to acquire an oilfield with an offer of about $2.5 billion around 2017, the business magnate told Financial Times in an interview released on Friday.
“Heirs Holdings had been looking to purchase an oilfield since 2017. We raised $2.5bn to purchase a different one. But in a twist, never previously disclosed, former president Muhammadu Buhari and his chief of staff, the late Abba Kyari, blocked the deal.” Elumelu disclosed.
However, the former president and his right-hand man, according to Elumelu, declined the offer, asserting that they could not allow an oilfield of such “strategic importance to fall into the hands of a private operator.”
Speaking with the Financial Times, Elumelu said the rejection “defied logic” given that “he would have been purchasing it from a foreign company.”
Elumelu, who chairs the UBA, said he soon discovered the bane of the petroleum industry, oil theft, which was a major factor influencing international oil companies’ divestment from onshore assets.
Having acquired a 45 per cent stake in an oilfield about three years ago, Elumelu said he was impacted by the activities of criminal gangs who constantly robbed his pipeline and stole enough crude that caused his company to shut down.
With a 45 per cent stake acquired in an oilfield about three years ago, Elumelu voiced his frustration after oil thieves robbed his pipeline and stole enough crude that caused his company to shut down production.
The frustration prompted him to tweet in 2022, “How can we be losing over 95 per cent of oil production to thieves?”
Elumelu said, “The government should know, they should tell us” the masterminds behind the oil theft. “Our security agencies should tell us who is stealing our oil. You bring vessels to our territorial waters, and we don’t know?”…CONTINUE READING
Elumelu, however, dislodged his frustration on the losses being incurred to crude theft.
He dislocled that the field managed by Heirs Energies porduces 42,000 barrels of crude pumped out daily with about 18 per cent of production being stolen by oil theives.
“This is oil theft. We’re not talking about stealing a bottle of Coke you can put in your pocket. The government should know, they should tell us. Look at America — Donald Trump was shot at and quickly they knew the background of who shot him. Our security agencies should tell us who is stealing our oil. You bring vessels to our territorial waters, and we don’t know?” He lamented.
