Abuja ordered to adjust oil profit sharing model

A Supreme Court panel, which included Chief Justice Walter Onnoghen, has unanimously ordered the federal government to adjust its share of proceeds from the sale of crude oil whenever the price exceeded $20 per barrel. THISDAY reports that the ruling addresses the content and provisions of the Deep Offshore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contracts Act on how oil revenue from deep offshore production should be shared. The lawsuit filed by the Attorneys-Generals of three states (Rivers, Bayelsa and Akwa Ibom) was that sections of the Act had not been followed judiciously by the federal government. They argued that between 2003 and 2015 the federal government lost an estimated $1.1bn due to its failure to activate the sharing formula. They further argued that contracts between the government and the international oil companies were no longer valid because the price of oil had risen above $20, and should be reviewed.