Nigeria's oil industry regulator has been fired during an investigation into the award of drilling rights to an unknown Nigerian company outside the open auction process, Petroleum Ministry sources said on Thursday.
President Olusegun Obasanjo issued a directive ordering the removal of Tony Chukwueke as director of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) in Africa's top oil producer last month. It was enacted this week after high-level lobbying to save Chukwueke failed.
"There were top-level political moves to save him but they did not work. He has been removed," said a senior source in the Petroleum Ministry, asking not to be named. Another ministry source confirmed Chukwueke's removal.
Spokesmen at the Petroleum Ministry and the DPR said there was no official statement regarding Chukwueke, who is also an adviser to Minister of State for Petroleum Edmund Daukoru. The ministry sources said Obasanjo's directive made no mention of oil licensing, citing information sharing between ministries and sustenance of institutional frameworks.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission last month launched a probe into the award of Oil Prospecting Licence (OPL) 291 to Starcrest Nigeria Energy Ltd after it emerged that the unknown company had been given the licence outside the normal auction process without any official announcement. The findings of that investigation have not been released.
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