The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), yesterday, raised an alarm over the circulation of fake letters of authorisation purportedly from the NNPC to buy or sell Nigerian crude oil by fraudsters.

Nigeria Business Review gathered that the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of NNPC, Mr. Ohi Alegbe, in a statement, called on members of the public to be wary of persons with fraudulent intentions circulating letters authorising the lifting of Bonny Light crude oil from Nigeria.

Alegbe pointed out that a paragraph in one of the fake letters of authorisation in circulation, which is from Lavi International Corp, claimed that NNPC had entered into contractual arrangements directly with the company “to supply Bonny Light Crude Oil to the Lavi International Corp Associated Refineries and or Global Traders, and that the Lavi International Corp, has the power and authority to sell or otherwise deal with the Bonny Light Crude Oil, the subject of those contractual agreements.”

While refuting such claims, the NNPC’s Group General Manager for Group Public Affairs stated that Messrs Lavi International Corp was not one of its crude oil off-takers for the 2014-2015 Term Contract Period and, therefore, had not been allocated any crude oil volume as speculated in the fake letter of authorization.

He further noted that the list of local and international companies duly approved as NNPC’s crude oil off-takers for the 2014-2015 Term Contract Period had been widely publicized and called on member of the public to avail themselves of such information to avoid being defrauded by unscrupulous elements.

According to him, NNPC is working closely with relevant security agencies to track and bring to book all those behind these nefarious activities.
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