The Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Oil, Heineken Lokpobiri, has said that the Federal Government will revoke the licenses of owners of oil blocks who failed to secure investment or undertake exploration activities.

According to a statement, the minister decried that out of the 60 licences issued in the recent oil block bidding, only 10 companies have successfully attracted investment and started exploration.

Lokpobiri said: “I’ve always said if the upstream doesn’t succeed, the midstream and downstream will fail. And we have people who are holding licenses as souvenirs.

If those people do not use the licenses given to them to be able to raise funds and then extract the crude oil from the soil, we better take it back from them.

“I see a lot of them everywhere in the world. They wear nice suits and speak grammar. But we have only improvised them more. They pay signature bonuses to the government, but they have no money.

They have no wherewithal to be able to raise funds and do the real exploration. “Those who benefited from the last bid rounds are almost 60. But today we have less than 10 of them who have been able to bring oil from the soil.

Will you disagree with me that we should continue to leave these licenses with them when the licenses are not adding any value both to them and to Nigeria as a country?

“And if Heineken Lokpobiri is going to make enemies by ensuring that we revoke them and give them to people who have the capacity.”