Our oil sharing contracts obsolete - RMAFC

The Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) has reiterated its support for the proposed review of the Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) at its meeting held on Wednesday, 13th December, 2017.

In a press statement signed by Mr. Ibrahim Mohammed, RMAFC’s spokesperson, viewed the move by the Federal Government as a welcome development and commendable as the commission, that has the constitutional responsibility of monitoring revenue accruals into and disbursement of revenue from the Federation Account, had been consistently calling for the review of the contracts for the past seven.

He said the contracts have never been reviewed nine years after both conditions stipulated in the relevant provision of the act have elapsed, thereby leading to the huge revenue loss of about $21 billion by the country in the last 20 years as recently revealed by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu.

The statement said also related to the non-review of the PSCs is the low Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT) and Royalty Regime stipulated in the act which are disadvantageous to the country compared to what is obtainable in the Joint Venture Contracts ( JVCs).

The PPT in the 1993 PSCs is put at 50% flat rate whereas in the JVCs it ranged from 85% to 65%. The Royalty Rate in the PSCs ranges from 0% to 8% depending on the water depth for the PSCs while in the JVCs it ranges from shallow 18% and onshore 20% respectively.

Dr. Kachikwu recently announced that government had approved steps to amend Section 17 of the Deep Offshore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contracts Act, 1999 which specifically provides that the 1993 PSCs should be reviewed once the price of crude oil exceeds $20 a barrel or 15 years after the contracts i.e. 2008.

To this end, the commission advised that government should take appropriate steps to ensure the review of the agreements with due diligence.

RMAFC recalls that in April, 2016, it drew the attention of government to the fact that three main contract types, namely Joint Venture, Production Sharing and Service Contracts - were in use in the Nigerian oil and gas industry.