Annulment of Oil Licences in Nigeria’s Upstream Petroleum Sector: A Legal Critique of the Costs and Benefits

Owing to various reasons, tenable and untenable, successive governments in Nigeria have annulled licenses duly granted to identifiable upstream petroleum operators. With due sense of circumspect, when irregularities manifest in the process and the grant of substantive licences, such does not vest in the government an unfettered right to annul the licence. There are evidences of such occurrence in spite of established procedures regulating annulments, commonly referred to as revocation or cancellation. This paper is a critique of the annulment of oil licenses and the associated contractualregulatory dimensions. The validity of the Federal Government’s actions also comes to the fore, particularly in the light of renewed drive to attract investments into the upstream sector. Thus, as some benefits are accruable to the players, it is also important to appraise the consequential costs attributable to undue annulment of oil licenses. The paper adopts a descriptive analytical method of available facts, expounds requisite statutory provisions and utilizes judicial precedents to highlight the context of the study. It is imperative that the Federal Government adheres to established procedures on oil license annulment, as a contrary posture will amount to several negative outcomes

Primer and probe sequences for <i>C</i>.<i>trachomatis</i> targets and control using ddPCR.

<p>[<a href="http://www.plosntds.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pntd.0004798#pntd.0004798.ref019" target="_blank">19</a>]</p

The four administrative divisions of Fiji, with the selected clusters in the Western division marked as points.

<p>Prepared using ArcGIS 10.2 (ESRI).</p

Qualitative test for infection in persons with and without clinically active trachoma.

<p>Qualitative test for infection in persons with and without clinically active trachoma.</p

Low Prevalence of Ocular <i>Chlamydia trachomatis</i> Infection and Active Trachoma in the Western Division of Fiji

<div><p>Background</p><p>Trachoma is the leading infectious cause of blindness and is caused by ocular infection with the bacterium <i>Chlamydia trachomatis</i> (Ct). While the majority of the global disease burden is found in sub-Saharan Africa, the Western Pacific Region has been identified as trachoma endemic. Population surveys carried out throughout Fiji have shown an abundance of both clinically active trachoma and trachomatous trichiasis in all divisions. This finding is at odds with the clinical experience of local healthcare workers who do not consider trachoma to be highly prevalent. We aimed to determine whether conjunctival infection with Ct could be detected in one administrative division of Fiji.</p><p>Methods</p><p>A population-based survey of 2306 individuals was conducted using the Global Trachoma Mapping Project methodology. Population prevalence of active trachoma in children and trichiasis in adults was estimated using the World Health Organization simplified grading system. Conjunctival swabs were collected from 1009 children aged 1–9 years. DNA from swabs was tested for the presence of the Ct plasmid and human endogenous control.</p><p>Results</p><p>The prevalence of active trachoma in 1–9 year olds was 3.4%. The age-adjusted prevalence was 2.8% (95% CI: 1.4–4.3%). The unadjusted prevalence of ocular Ct infection in 1–9 year-olds was 1.9% (19/1009), and the age-adjusted infection prevalence was 2.3% (95% CI: 0.4–2.5%). The median DNA load was 41 Ct plasmid copies per swab (min 20, first quartile 32, mean 6665, third quartile 161, max 86354). There was no association between current infection and follicular trachoma. No cases of trachomatous trichiasis were identified.</p><p>Discussion</p><p>The Western Division of Fiji has a low prevalence of clinical trachoma. Ocular Ct infections were observed, but they were predominantly low load infections and were not correlated with clinical signs. Our study data suggest that trachoma does not meet the WHO definition of a public health problem in this Division of Fiji, but the inconsistency with previous studies warrants further investigation.</p></div

Comparative Ct <i>omcB</i> and plasmid load recovered from swabs stored at -20°C (n = 15) and +5°C (n = 15) for the duration of the study (November 2013 –July 2014).

<p>Comparative Ct <i>omcB</i> and plasmid load recovered from swabs stored at -20°C (n = 15) and +5°C (n = 15) for the duration of the study (November 2013 –July 2014).</p

Conjunctival photograph of the individual felt to demonstrate equivocal evidence of conjunctival scar, Western Division, Fiji, 2015.

<p>Conjunctival photograph of the individual felt to demonstrate equivocal evidence of conjunctival scar, Western Division, Fiji, 2015.</p

Categories and themes derived from the transcript of the focus group of epilating individuals, Western Division, Fiji, 2013.

<p>Categories and themes derived from the transcript of the focus group of epilating individuals, Western Division, Fiji, 2013.</p

Characteristics of eyelash epilation among 125 epilators, Western Division, Fiji, 2015.

<p>Characteristics of eyelash epilation among 125 epilators, Western Division, Fiji, 2015.</p

Front-of-eye and conjunctival photographs of individuals who removed (Bottom) 2–10 eyelashes, (Middle) >10 eyelashes (with pterygium), or (Top) most or all of the eyelashes; Western Division, Fiji, 2015.

<p>Front-of-eye and conjunctival photographs of individuals who removed (Bottom) 2–10 eyelashes, (Middle) >10 eyelashes (with pterygium), or (Top) most or all of the eyelashes; Western Division, Fiji, 2015.</p