Members of parliament pushing for total transparency in the oil sector are to petition the UK and French parliaments over the Tullow-Total deal.
This follows reports of Tullow’s sale of its 67% stake to French oil company Total and Chinese CNOOC. The multi-billion shilling deal has been welcomed by some analysts saying that it paves way for commercial oil and gas production which is expected to commence in small amounts next year.
However, the MPs led by Ndorwa West’s Wilfred Niwagaba have told journalists at parliament that there are already signals that this is a bad deal in which gov’t is reportedly bound to lose 10.5tn shillings.
He adds that it was irregular for such deals to go ahead before the tax dispute between Tullow and URA is resolved. Niwagaba now says that the petition asking the said parliaments to investigate the operations of Tullow will be signed by members of the civil society, religious leaders and members of the legal fraternity.
Gov’t has however often insisted that it has always followed the right legal processes in handling all oil related deals. This comes days after President Museveni Promised to punish MPs he called economic saboteurs, over allegedly petitioning the UK House of Commons over the dealings of Tullow Oil.
