“The Minister of Petroleum [Sani Issoufou] being unavailable because of his detention, it seemed to me useful, in my capacity as Prime Minister, head of the government of which he is a member, to point out the errors and false information in order to enlighten your readers on this subject.
1. The first error in the article is to present the Minister of Petroleum as an opponent of the creation of the PetroNiger company.
This information is false because it is quite the opposite. The Minister of Petroleum is the initiator of the creation of the company PetroNiger. I witnessed the fight he had to lead, confronting the divergent opinions which did not want the creation of this company and which were favorable to the status quo, that is to say the maintenance of the upstream oil in the same company in charge of marketing refined products downstream, Sonidep [Société nigérienne de pétrole].
He succeeded in convincing his fellow members of the government, the Prime Minister and the President of the Republic of the relevance of the creation of this new company. The project was validated by the Cabinet Council and was to be approved by the Council of Ministers on July 27, 2023. There is no difference between the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Oil on this issue. Your article says the exact opposite of the position of the Minister of Oil, presenting him as a supporter of maintaining upstream oil in Sonidep and therefore against the creation of PetroNiger And, therefore, in disagreement with the President of the Republic on this issue. It is totally false.
2. The second error of the article is to announce the participation of CNPC [China National Petroleum Corporation ] in the capital of PetroNiger.
There has never been any discussion on the participation of CNPC or any other oil group in the capital of PetroNiger. PetroNiger is a state-owned company with 100% state-owned capital. Its purpose is the management, on behalf of the State, of State holdings in the activities of production, transport and marketing of crude oil and gas. The State cannot associate with CNPC for the creation of an entity whose purpose is to control the activities of the oil companies and to manage its interests. It is totally false and it is surprising as an error for a journalist who claims to have consulted the statutes of the new company.
3. The third error relates to a supposed divergence between the Presidency of the Republic and the Ministry of Petroleum on the allocation of blocks R5, R6, and R7, which the journalist presents as highly coveted.
Blocks R5, R6, and R7 had been on the market since 2018 following their return to the state by CNPC. There was no serious demand to acquire these blocks from 2018 to 2020. It was not until early 2021 that the Ministry of Petroleum awarded them to the Niger Oil Company (NOC), a company created by an association of three companies, Sonidep, Amko and Frontera, the latter being the technical arm of the group and the main financial partner.
In accordance with the provisions of the Petroleum Code, the allocation of the blocks was made subject to the payment, within a maximum period of three months, of a bonus of 8 million dollars per block, ie 24 million dollars. At the end of the three-month period, if the bonus is not paid, the allocation of the blocks is null and void without it being necessary to take an act of withdrawal. After three months, the NOC failed to execute and the blocks returned to the market. There was therefore no need for an intervention by the President of the Republic for this withdrawal, which is automatic. There is no disagreement on this issue.
In 2023, the Ministry of Petroleum received Sinopec’s request [China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation], a major Chinese oil company, for the allocation of the three blocks R5, R6 and R7. These blocks have not yet been allocated to Sinopec, contrary to your newspaper’s assertions. Only a memorandum of engagement for negotiations has been drawn up and it is at the end of these negotiations, which will concern the amount of the bonus and the program of research work to be carried out, and in the event of an agreement, that allocation will take place. Here again, there is no difference between the presidency and the Ministry of Oil, all are happy to find a new major oil operator interested in these blocks.
4. The fourth error or untruth is relative to the presentation of Trafigura as a company “which is the crane foot to convince the Minister of Petroleum to allocate blocks R5, R6, R7 to it”.
This is false, Trafigura never sought to acquire blocks R5, R6, R7. Trafigura is a crude oil trading company and not an oil exploration and exploitation company.
On the strength of the information that Niger will be an exporter of crude oil, several oil trading groups have come forward to offer their services to Niger for the marketing of crude oil. The Ministry of Petroleum received visits from Trafigura but also from Addax and Vitol, among others. None of these groups is interested in oil exploration on blocks R5, R6 and R7 because this is not their field of activity. None of the groups has also been chosen by Niger for the marketing of its crude. There is therefore no disagreement between the Minister and the President of the Republic on the allocation of these blocks to Trafigura, which is not requesting them.
5. Fifth error or untruth, the shortfalls noted by the external audit are presented by the journalist as Sonidep funds diverted to serve as a slush fund.
The audit speaks of a shortfall in Sonidep’s turnover, due to hydrocarbon fraud, either because of smuggled imports linked to the proximity to Nigeria where the fuel was subsidized, or because of fraudulent repayment petroleum products for export to Mali and Burkina.
Moreover, these frauds, which have nothing to do with any slush fund, will cease with the recent decision of the Government of Nigeria to put an end to subsidies for petroleum products and with the cessation by Sonidep of exports to Mali and Burkina.
As you can see, oil has nothing to do with the reasons for the event that occurred on July 26, 2023, which remains an enigma for everyone. If ever these reasons exist, they must be sought elsewhere. »
Young Africa : We take note of the Prime Minister’s responses. If the creation of PetroNiger, which was to recover part of the attributions of the company Sonidep (whose management, which we contacted, informed us that it did not wish to speak), ended up being accepted, we maintain that other divergences appeared within the shareholders.
The last solution considered to our knowledge provided for the State to inject 15% of the capital, the rest of the funds being provided by a Chinese company and private Nigerien shareholders. There was no question of a PetroNiger company 100% owned by the state, which some international partners, according to our information, opposed.
Finally, we maintain that one of the reasons for the creation of PetroNiger was to put an end to the hidden function of “slush fund” performed by Sonidep under all the regimes that have succeeded in this country since its foundation, in 1977.
Matthew Olivier
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