•FG accuses International Oil Companies of stealing Nigeria’s $17bn crude
NOTHING better validates the description of Nigeria as a country where anything goes than the industrial-scale theft allegedly being perpetrated by some international oil companies (IOCs) operating in the country.
We refer to the court papers filed by the Federal Government lawyer, Professor Fabian Ajogwu, accusing Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited and its surrogate, Shell Western Supply & Trading Limited of massive theft of Nigeria’s oil. The charge is said to be based on the sworn affidavits of three United States of America-based professionals commissioned to undertake forensic analysis of bills of lading and shipping documents of crude oil shipments by the Federal Government.
The trio, Professor David Olowokere, lead analyst at Loumos Group LLC, a technology and oil and gas auditing firm; Jerome Stanley, head of the legal team engaged by Loumo Group LLC, and Micheal Kanko, founder and chief executive officer of Trade Data Services, not only found mindboggling discrepancies in their analysis of global movements of the country’s hydro-carbons, they were able to establish a shortfall of $406.75 million from the firms’ crude oil lifting between 2013 and 2014.
Specific cases established by the auditors include the shipment done on January 6, 2013, with the vessel AUTHENTIC with bill of lading numberALMYSVDM161212A3 –valued at $72,678,320 of which Shell was accused of not disclosing to the authorities. An earlier one lifted January 3, 2013, is said to have resulted in a shortfall of 979,031 barrels with the value of $107,693,410. There was yet another shipment, allegedly undertaken by Shell on December 14, 2014, using the vessel EAGLE TUSCON with bill of lading number AETK0909US14. Again, the resulting shortfall of 499,048 barrels is reported to have cost the nation’s treasury $54,895,280, among others.
Shell, unfortunately, appears to be not alone in the unwholesome practice. Currently, the Federal Government is locked in tango with Chevron, Total and Agip over $12.7 billion, representing 57 million barrels of crude, said to have been shipped by the trio to the United States between 2011 and 2014, but which they allegedly failed to declare. In all, the Federal Government is said to be targeting 15 oil majors over an alleged loss of $17 billion in estimated revenue.
The accused firms may well be innocent of the charges. That, of course, is for the courts to decide; what is not acceptable is the palpable arrogance being shown by Shell, particularly its contemptible treatment of the request by the Federal Government lawyer for the IOC to come clean on its oil liftings. We refer here to the letter said to have been written to Shell and its surrogate on January 21, drawing their attention to the discrepancies, and requesting them to clarify them with documentation, as a prelude to settlement – which the firms reportedly neglected to do. Wouldn’t that ordinarily suggest an admission of the crime, or is it an attempt to stonewall – borne of its awareness of the slow pace of the nation’s judiciary?
We are sad to observe that 36 years after the Justice Ayo Irikefe Tribunal first gave the nation hint of the seedy practices being perpetrated by the industry operators, particularly the IOCs, very little, if anything, has changed in terms of the willingness of the IOCs to play fair; worse is that the industry watch-dog that ought to have kept them on their toes has remained ineffectual to the point of irrelevance. Indeed, what the findings of the Federal Government forensic team clearly suggest is that the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), whose business it is to monitor and police the lifting of crude oil at the export terminals is either complicit in the crime or hopelessly incompetent to the point of not recognising the heist going on.
To the extent that the audit findings are an indictment of the body, what is called for in the circumstance is a complete overhaul of the DPR. Indeed, a body under whose watch hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude are stolen has not only lost its rationale, it deserves to be disbanded.
As for Shell and other IOCs said to have lifted the nation’s oil illegally, the Federal Government should not only sue for the recovery of the value of the barrels stolen, it should press criminal charges against the officials involved.