The Department of Petroleum Resources, in a public notice on Thursday, indicated that the licences were revoked as a result of legacy debts owed the federation by the affected firms.An OPL gives its holder the exclusive right to explore for and develop oil and gas within a defined area while an OML gives its holder the exclusive right to explore for, develop and produce oil and gas within a defined area.
OML 110, operated by Cavendish Petroleum Nigeria Limited, which was founded by the late Alhaji Mai Deribe, expired in 2016. Earlier this year, the erstwhile Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, declared that the Federal Government had commenced a new automation process to aggressively recover royalties in the oil sector that were meant for the federation.
In the report, which it released this year, NEITI further disclosed that Pan Ocean owed the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation an outstanding debt of $135.8m since 1985.