Nigeria’s Oil Firm, Heritage Under Fire For ‘Lying’ About Indebtedness To Local Contractors

Heritage Energy Operational Services Limited, a major oil contractors in Nigeria and operator of joint venture Oil Mining Licence, OML 30, has come under serious attack for denying that it owns local contractors who have done jobs for them for several months and years.

BIGPEN recalls that Heritage had in a statement on Tuesday denied owing its local contractors as being portrayed by foremost Ijaw youth organisation, Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Worldwide which also call for the revocation of the operational licence of the joint venture companies.

The denial of Heritage came following calls by the President of Ijaw Youth Council, Worldwide, Eric Omare, (Esq.), to the Federal Government for the revocation of OML30 licence over alleged Heritage’s incompetence and indebtedness to local contractors.

According to the oil firm, “Heritage took over operations of OML 30, in 2017, and inherited many invoices and ongoing contracts. The company noticed that while some of the invoices could be verified, there were some that could not. Despite this, the company went ahead and commenced with the payment of verified invoices while investigating others”.

“The volume of the debts necessitated the development in conjunction with contractors of payment plans for installment payments. Since then, the company has been steadily reducing the debts according to the agreed payment plans”, the oil firm in a statement.

But IYC, in a counter statement accused the oil company for lying about the true situation of things, saying “Heritage Energy Operational Services Limited lied in saying that it is not owning contractors in its host communities. 

Omare said that it is public knowledge that Heritage’s failure to pay contractors and discharge its contractual obligations, was the reason for the series of protest against the company both in its Warri and Lagos offices.

“It is common knowledge in the host communities to Heritage and close watches of events relating to Heritage management of OML 30, that inability to pay contractors and discharge contractual obligations have become a common feature in the affairs of Heritage which has led to protest against the company both at its Warri and Lagos offices.

IYC accused Heritage oil company of adopting a ‘divide and rule’ tactics instead of tackling the debt crisis in their hands, saying that rather than address their indebtedness, they called a few leaders in their host communities so as to compromise them from speaking on the matter.

“Only Saturday March 22, in a panicky response to the IYC press release, Heritage met with some of the leaders of its cluster (GMOU) communities in Lagos where it agreed to pay some of its indebtedness to the contractors who are leaders of GMOU and Clusters. 

“This response was another divide and rule strategy which has become common with Heritage operations in OML 30.

“Instead of Heritage to take steps to pay all the contractors their indebtedness irrespective of the contractors status in their host communities, it decided to only address their indebtedness to a few leaders in their host communities so as to compromise them from speaking on the matter.

Omare warned that oil companies that have adopted divide and rule tactics in the Niger Delta region never succeed, adding that if Heritage continues with the alleged ‘divide and rule strategy’ it may likely end up selling their assets the way of others.

“We wish to remind Heritage that companies that have adopted divide and rule tactics as a company policy in the past in the Niger Delta region have ended up selling their assets because in the end the people would resist them. This would surely be the case with Heritage if it continues with this same divide and rule strategy.

“Consequently, we reiterate our call for the cancellation of the operational license of Heritage because they are incompetent and not financially viable to operate an Oil mining Lease. 

“The host communities to Heritage are experiencing an unprecedented poverty because of Heritage deliberate refusal to pay local contractors while transporting the money realised from their communities to other parts of the country and abroad.

The group however called on the national assembly to investigate the alleged oppressive conduct of the oil company, stressing that it was ready to bring facts and evidence against the company at a public hearing.

“We also call on the relevant committees of the Senate and House of Representatives to investigate the oppressive conducts of Heritage against its host communities. We are ready to bring the facts and evidence against them in such a public hearing”.

Heritage is the managers of the OML30 asset which is a Joint Venture Partnership between Nigeria Petroleum Development Corporation (NPDC) and Shoreline Natural Resources Limited (SNRL), the original owners of the Oil Mining Licence.