The House Representatives on Wednesday asked the National Petroleum Investment Management Services to re-award its $260m Joint Venture contract to a Nigerian company, Tilone Subsea Limited.

The House had investigated the controversial contract in 2016, following a dispute involving some bidders and NAPIMS.

In adopting the report of the probe, the House also directed the Esso Exploration & Production Nigeria Limited, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil, to “mobilise Tilone Subsea Limited to provide the OIMR Vessel and WROV Services to meet its requirement for Usan operations in the Oil Mining Lease, OML 138.”

The investigation was conducted by the Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream) chaired by Mr. Victor Nwokolo.

The House, which endorsed several recommendations of the committee, “Urges the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and its Joint Venture partners to always adhere to due process in their transactions to eliminate prolonged disputes that may negatively impact on investments.

“Given that since the contract for the provision of the DP2-DP3 Construction Platform Support Vessel, single-sourced to the GMT Energy Limited is already ongoing, the contractor should be given enough termination notice by demobilising it at a date not later than the first anniversary of the commencement date of the contract.

“That given both the Nigerian content human capital development and financial investment already made by Tilone Subsea Limited, the committee recommends that the NNPC’s board should approve the NAPIMS memorandum of 30 December,2013, which cleared NAPIMS Contract Review Committee on 10 July, 2014, referenced A10-190614 for the provision of the OIMR Vessel and WROV for Usan operations in the OML 138.

“That the EEPNL should mobilise Tilone Subsea Limited to provide the OIMR Vessel and WROV Services to meet its requirement after the demobilisation of the GMT Energy Limited.”

The House resolved to probe the contract after allegations indicated that NAPIMS awarded it (the contract) in breach of due process.

The NNPC’s board was also said to have made no input into the contract as required.