By Ediri Ejoh, with agency report

The Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, yesterday, confirmed the revocation of licenses of six oil blocks for non-payment of royalties, even as there are indications that more licences are on the line for revocation.

This is barely a month after the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, issued a request to the Federal Government for the revocation of   five Oil Mining Licenses, OML, including OML 98, OML 120 and 121, OML 108, OML 110 and one Oil Prospecting License, OPL 206.

Owners of the blocks include: Pan Ocean Oil Corporation (OML 98); Allied Energy Resources Nigeria, (OML 120 and 121); Express Petroleum and Gas Company (OML 108); Cavendish Petroleum Nigeria (OML 110) and Summit Oil International (OPL 206).

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In a public notice, DPR said the action was based on a presidential directive to recover legacy debts owed by the companies operating the licences.

The revoked licenses are located in the onshore, shallow and deepwater areas of the Niger Delta basin.

Pan Ocean is owned by Festus Fadeyi, billionaire businessman, while Allied Energy, which is now known as Erin Energy, has Kase Lawal, founder of Camac Energy, as its chairman.

Express Petroleum, operators of OML 108, is technically managed by Shebah Exploration & Petroleum, a company owned by Bryant Orjiako, Chairman of Seplat Petroleum Development Company, while Cavendish Petroleum has Mai Deribe as its chairman.

Summit Oil International, operators of OPL 205, also known as the Otien field, was co-founded by the late MKO Abiola.

Meanwhile, Vanguard gathered that more licences are set to be revoked as the federal government plans to roll out list of affected companies whose licences are on the line.