The House of Representatives Ad-Hoc Committee on Oil and Gas yesterday gave the Pipeline Products Marketing Company (PPMC) seven days to submit receipts of $245 million paid for products lifted by Duke Oil, The Guardian reports.

 The committee is investigating revenue leakages in the oil and gas sector from January 2016 to January 2017. Its Chairman, Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe (PDP, Cross River), gave the directive just as the panel denied the Head of Planning, Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Folasade Onanuga, response to questions on behalf of the director who was absent.

 The lawmakers insisted that the Director of DPR, Mordecai Ladan, should appear in person. On allocation of products to Duke Oil and its level of remittances to government coffers, Jarigbe stated that the trading arm of the NNPC was the PPMC.

 His argument came on the heels of attempts by the Managing Director of the PPMC, Umar Ajiya, who explained the difficulties the agency was facing in the reluctance of the trading firms such as Duke Oil to promptly remit government revenues.