Annulment of Oil Licences in Nigeria’s Upstream Petroleum Sector: A Legal Critique of the Costs and Benefits
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Date
2017
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy
Abstract
Owing to various reasons, tenable and untenable, successive governments in Nigeria have annulled licenses duly granted to identifiable upstream
petroleum operators. With due sense of circumspect, when irregularities manifest in the process and the grant of substantive licences, such does not
vest in the government an unfettered right to annul the licence. There are evidences of such occurrence in spite of established procedures regulating
annulments, commonly referred to as revocation or cancellation. This paper is a critique of the annulment of oil licenses and the associated contractualregulatory
dimensions. The validity of the Federal Government’s actions also comes to the fore, particularly in the light of renewed drive to attract
investments into the upstream sector. Thus, as some benefits are accruable to the players, it is also important to appraise the consequential costs
attributable to undue annulment of oil licenses. The paper adopts a descriptive analytical method of available facts, expounds requisite statutory
provisions and utilizes judicial precedents to highlight the context of the study. It is imperative that the Federal Government adheres to established
procedures on oil license annulment, as a contrary posture will amount to several negative outcomes.
Description
Staff Publication
Keywords
Oil,, Upstream,, Nigeria,, Licence,, Annulment,, Contracts,, Regulations