Senator representing Enugu north senatorial district, Chukwuka Utazi has asked the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) to list Enugu as an oil producing state.
The lawmaker made this call during a plenary session at the senate in Abuja on Tuesday.
According to him: “Senators representing the Senatorial district that have a boundary with Enugu and Anambra States have discussed this issue throughout the 8th Assembly,”
“Following the frequency of our discussion, this Assembly asked the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR )to look into the issue to find out and settle the issue permanently within these three states so that they could enjoy the 13 percent derivation given deposits of hydrocarbon in the area.
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“So the committee that was set up by the Petroleum Upstream invited the DPR and we discussed with them extensively.
“They gave us a condition that any state that wants to become an oil producing state will need to fulfil certain conditions.
“I want to say that Anambra has Orient Oil Producing Company that has been there trying to extract crude oil in that basin.
“After our meeting, the DPR wrote to the Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream) on July 24, 2018, saying that the Orient Petroleum that is operating between Kogi, Anambra and Enugu has not fulfilled certain conditions.
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“In view of the foregoing, the Orient Petroleum Company has no status of an oil producing company, therefore, Anambra, Kogi and Enugu cannot be classified as oil producing states for now.
“I’m happy that we are inching towards resolution of the matter at the 8th Assembly. We jointly sponsored a motion here the entire Senators, that is Isaac Alfa, Kogi East; Chukwuka Utazi, Enugu North; and Stella Oduah, Anambra North.”
