At stake is the legal validity of moves trumpeted by the Petroleum Ministry this month to reassign operatorship of OPLs 216 and 248 to ChevronTexaco. Questions are also being asked about the government's motives in delaying OML (development) approval to South Atlantic Petroleum, which operates the Akpo block OPL-246.
Initial statements by the authorities insisted a 40% operating stake has been awarded to ChevronTexaco's local subsidiary Star Deepwater in prized blocks OPL-247 and OPL-249, operated by Heritage Oil and Gas and fellow independent Oil and Gas Co Ltd.
