Who is Afraid of Tirex Petroleum and Energy?

Kayode Oladapo

Recently, Tirex Petroleum and Energy, an emerging fully indigenous drilling and well intervention services company established in 2019, has been in the news, not for the reasons it would have wished but for an issue which does not concern it, at least, not directly.

The whole issue borders around the award of contract for the provision of drillship for TOTAL E&P OML 130 Drilling Campaign TENDER NO DW00001997 which many tenderers participated in the bid process. This tender has suffered serious delay due to the obvious failure of the suggested lowest bidder to identify an acceptable rig for TotalEnergies. TotalEnergies, in its desire to move the process forward, issued an RFP to Tirex Petroleum and Energy Limited. It is Tirex Petroleum and Energy’s response to this RFP that has become a mortal sin for which it must be annihilated.

Christopher Onyeka Palmer, the Chief Executive Officer of Palmeron Nigeria, assumed himself the winner of the bid that was ruled unsuccessful by the company who called for it. First, it felt like a reaction of someone to a loss from an unsuccessful bid attempt but degenerated to musings that come from the refusal to accept an unfavourable business outcome, then to a formal petition and now, the playing of ‘the Dog in the Manger.’

Understandably, Palmer wrote two petitions to the Group Chief Executive Officer NNPC Limited on 11 April, 2022 and 23 August, 2022 alleging irregularity and abuse of procurement process in the award of said contract. In his obvious ignorance, Mr Palmer did not know that the contract that has already been awarded to a consortium of Derotech/Geoplex/PIDWAL/NOBLE, which Tirex Petroleum and Energy is not even a part of, but assumed that it is being planned to be awarded to Tirex Petroleum and Energy.

However, instead of allowing NNPC Limited to carry out its due process of investigating the alleged irregularities so he could be better informed, Palmer seems to be displaying the fishiness of his agenda by resorting to hollow threats and cheap blackmail, recruiting phony and discredited groups and a section of the media known for ‘cash & carry’ journalism.

For example, on 14 August, 2022, an email was sent by an unknown group that goes by the name ‘Association of Concerned Citizens’ to many stakeholders of the Nigeria’s oil and gas industry including the Presidency, anti-corruption agencies, political parties, the media. The email is a petition against Mr Bala Wunti, the Group General Manager of the National Petroleum Investment Services (NAPIMS), a corporate services unit in the Upstream Directorate of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited.

Irked by the snub from its targets, the author wrote another email on 4 September, 2022 and signed it, not as ‘Association of Concerned Citizens’ as he did in the first email, but as ‘Concerns (sic) Nigerians.’ In the email, the author resorted to soliciting help from industry players and contractors to join in his obnoxious campaign of calumny against his self-chosen ‘enemies’.

It was the turn of the South-South Reawakening Group, another discredited group, to launch its own attack against Tirex Petroleum, a couple of days ago. The funny thing about the petitions is that they all have the signature of Mr Palmer – pushing the Palmeron Nigeria’s agenda. While the so-called ‘Association of Concerned Citizens/Concerns (sic) Nigerians’ named Mr Wunti, the South-South Reawakening Group was a bit more circumspect, saying “a senior official of NAPIMS.”

Other common features in the correspondences of both Mr Palmer and these groups are their proclivity to go beyond their supposed primary targets – TotalEnergies, NNPC Limited, NAPIMS, and Mr Wunti to throw mud at many other stakeholders in the industry namely, including Tirex Petroleum and Energy Limited, their ignorance that Tirex Petroleum and Energy has since walked away from the OML 130 Drilling Campaign into its other businesses. They also assume Tirex Petroleum and Energy is so powerful that it could influence NNPC Limited and NAPIMS, a JV partner in the oil and gas sector.

One wonders why Mr Palmer resorted to playing ‘The Dog in the Manger,’ a metaphor used to speak of a person who has no need of, or ability to use, a possession that would be of use or value to others, but who prevents others from having it instead of going to court to enforce his rights if he is sure of his claims. Providence came for him. Information has it that Tirex Petroleum and Energy, in a bid to protect its reputation built over the years, has taken Mr Palmer and his companies – Palmeron Nigeria Limited, Palmeron Exploration & Drilling Solution Limited and Palmeron Limited – to court for defamation.

This is one move that should have afforded Mr Palmer a good opportunity to establish its claims but this is not to be. It was learnt that neither Mr Palmer nor his companies could be traced to any physical address when the court papers were taken there for service on them. This prompted the court to order a substituted service on the defendants through publication in THISDAY newspaper.

Up till now, it is uncertain if the defendants have responded to the court papers or not but he tries to manipulate the unsuspecting public by distributing false documents and discussing the issues that are already in court, in total disregard to the rules of the court, the highest authority in Nigeria in legal matters.