The report by Nigeria’s Punch newspaper on Thursday said that Buhari ordered the state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to take over the operatorship of the entire Oil Mining Lease 11 from SPDC.
The report said that a letter from the Presidency to the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, dated March 1, 2019, and signed by the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari, clearly stated that the entire operatorship of OML 11 should be taken over by the NNPC/Nigeria Petroleum Development Company not later than April 30, 2019.
The NPDC is the flagship oil exploration and production subsidiary of the NNPC and the liaison office of the company acknowledged receipt of the letter on March 5, 2019.
It added that the President Buhari has “directed NNPC/NPDC to confirm by 2 May, 2019, of the assumption of the operatorship”.
OML 11 lies in the southeastern Niger Delta and contains 33 oil and gas fields of which eight are producing as at 2017 and it is one of the most important oil blocks in Nigeria.