Crude Oil for Refined Products - EFCC Probes NNPC Oil Contracts

14 June 2015



The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has begun a massive investigation into suspected fraud associated with oil swap contracts by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Daily Trust on Sunday can reveal.

Checks at the NNPC showed that the anti-corruption agency’s operatives have in the last four weeks been asking official questions over crude oil swap contracts with refined petroleum products. It is suspected that the refined products supplied by the companies who received the contracts may not correspondent with the refined products supplied.

A source at the NNPC said the EFCC operatives activities were in continuation of a probe started during the Goodluck Jonathan administration, to fish out some irregular deals at the oil company.

The source alleged that the former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Allison-Maduekwe, during her tenure, was suspected to have used the NNPC as a conduit pipe to give out many directives to the officials in transactions the NNPC authorities did not approve.

Daily Trust on Sunday gathered that the EFCC was investigating some documents in the Crude Oil Marketing Division (COMD), the Pipeline Products Marketing Company (PPMC) and the Corporate Services Division.

In line with the investigation, the anti-corruption agency has made many requests to the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) for details of companies that have been involved in oil contracts with the NNPC.

Checks by our reporter at the CAC revealed that the staff of the Commission have been pre-occupied with the search for details of many such companies based of EFCC’s requests in the past three weeks.

“The EFCC has made so many requests that all of our staff involved in searching for registration status and details of corporations have been overwhelmed. Only few other staff are available for search requests by other agencies and individuals,” a staff of CAC told our reporter at the weekend.

A report by Reuters on the probe of the oil swap contract by EFCC indicated that government may have lost money through opaque contracts in which crude oil worth billions of dollars is given to traders in exchange for refined imports, mainly gasoline, international and domestic watchdogs have said.

Reuters quoted authorities at NNPC as saying that both the EFCC and Department of State Security were involved in the investigation since last month.

However, when we contacted Mr Wilson Uwujaren, the spokesman for the EFCC, he told our reporter that he could not comment on the probe because “I’ve not been given a brief by my superior” on the matter.

Reuters quoted a security source with knowledge of the matter as saying the DSS wanted to find out how the value of the crude and products was computed.

“It appears that the value of the crude was more than the value of the refined imported,” the security source said.

According to Reuters, “the contracts, known as offshore processing agreements (OPAs) are between Pipelines and Product Marketing Co. (PPMC), a subsidiary of state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC) and three oil trading companies: Sahara Group, Aiteo and Duke Oil, the trading subsidiary of NNPC.

“Expired contracts with Swiss trader Trafigura, Taleveras, Ontario Oil and Gas are also being examined, the sources said.

“The PPMC head was among the NNPC and company officials called in the investigating agencies in the past two weeks to answer questions about the agreements, the NNPC sources said.

“It started about two weeks ago...he was called in to the DSS everyday since Thursday and before that by the EFCC,” one senior official at the company said.

“A statement from the NNPC said some of its officials were invited by the agencies “to shed light” on the contracts and that none had been detained or arrested as part of this investigation.

“The Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative has said there was a revenue loss of at least $600 million due to a discrepancy between the value of the crude and the products delivered. The figure was taken from its 2009-2011 and 2012 audits of the oil and gas industry, the latest was released this year.

“Some contract-holders have said that the discrepancies in value were reconciled.

“Sahara, which receives 90,000 barrels per day for processing through an agreement with the Societe Ivorienne de Raffinage (SIR), said it was invited to the EFCC and submitted information to show that its contract was justified.

“Aiteo, which also has a 90,000 bpd contract, could not be reached for comment. There was no response to a Reuters email and no telephone details were given on its website.

“Duke Oil, an NNPC subsidiary, which has a 30,000 bpd contract, could also not be reached for comment. The listed phone number led to NNPC and it did not respond to an email.

“A spokesman for Taleveras, that held a crude swaps contract between 2011 and December 2014 via Duke Oil, said that the company did not owe any money and it would deliver gasoline until June this year to balance out what it received in crude.

“A spokesman for Trafigura said that the EFCC had requested information about their swap contract and it was provided by the company in the past month. Trafigura held a Refined Products Exchange Agreement, or swap contract, between Oct. 2010 and Dec. 2014.

“Despite Trafigura facing extensive logistical challenges in delivering refined product into Nigeria...delivery would typically precede the corresponding swap of crude oil by an order of weeks - sometimes months,” the spokesman said.

“This reality led to ongoing supply imbalances...and ultimately reconciled, every two months over the duration of the term.”

Nigeria relies on imports for the bulk of its domestic gasoline demand, which is met by gasoline coming via the crude exchanges and through a subsidy scheme that was at the root of acute fuel shortages at the end of May.

The new administration of Muhammadu Buhari came into power on an anti-corruption platform and the EFCC is keen show it has teeth. Right after Buhari’s inauguration on May 29, six central bankers and 16 commercial bank staf f were accused of currency fraud by the EFCC, the agency said.

The EFCC has investigated various oil scandals in the recent past, namely a fuel subsidy fraud costing the government $6.8 billion between 2009-2011. But due to a lack of political will from the top, only a handful were prosecuted with little result.”

nku5:
The Cabal Starts To Sing?

I got this BB message minutes ago-

Very Important-Please broadcast - Petroleum Marketers are fighting back by exposing some of the subsidy deals.

They say Nigeria must know that Haruna Momoh the MD of PPMC and Deziani Allison Madueke Minister for Petroleum has been demanding and pocketing N50 per litre of Kero and petrol produced by local Refineries since Jan 2011 till date. The reason they gave to marketers is that it was marketers contribution to Jonathan's election, but it has continued even after the elections.

That the govt should probe Nezor SA and Tridax SA  two companies owned by the Peroleum Minister run by her junior brother. This two companies in the last 16 month of her tenure has from nowhere become one of the few companies lifting crude oil and one of the largest beneficiary of the subsidy.

The marketers want Nigeria to probe the new list of briefcase companies now lifting crude oil because they paid minimum of $1 million to Momoh and Deziani.

I think we hv started seeing the real faces of the cabals!

Mysterious Tridax and Mezcor

Tridax Energy Ltd and Mezcor Ltd each have a Swiss subsidiary, Tridax SA and Mezcor SA. Both were created on 1 December 2010 and have Richard Levinson and Daniel Roy Joanes as directors.91 Only the address differs, although originally both were located at Place du Port 1, in Geneva.On 11 July 2011, the two partners then created Lynear SA, situated at 19, rue Prévost-Martin, in Geneva.

Neither Tridax nor Mezcor cooperated with the auditors, while the first was additionally criticised for having received 15.9 million dollars without having imported the petroleum products that it was supposed to bring into the country. Surprisingly, Mezcor and Tridax both received their permits from the Nigerian authorities to import products before having requested them.

[b]Rumours relayed by the Handelszeitung support the idea that Tridax was connected with the younger brother of the Petroleum Minister, Dieziani Allison-Madueke. These rumours were never confirmed, but the sudden appearance of these two “completely unknown firms” both in the export of crude oil and the import of petroleum products, and for quantities that the major Swiss traders would not deny, raises questions. The explanation could come from the presence, as 49% shareholder of Mezcor Limited in Nigeria, of a certain Donald Chidi Amamegbo. The latter practised law in California and, according to our information, also in Nigeria. But of particular note is the fact he studied law at Howard University (Washington, DC) at the time when the current Nigerian Petroleum Minister, Dieziani Allison-Madueke,was studying architecture there.The 51% remaining shareholding is attributed to Mezcor SA, the Swiss entity, “represented by Daniel Joanes.” However, as the Swiss Trade Register does not give any indication about the shareholding of companies, it is not possible to know to whom this share of 51% really belongs.[/b]

One thing is certain: like others, Tridax and Mezcor have continued to be allocated oil for export.It shouldbe noted that Lynear, the third company founded in Geneva by the Joanes-Levinson pair, made its entrance in 2012 among the exporters of Nigerian crude oil.
Contacted by the BD, Tridax and Mezcor did not wish to respond to our questions. A source close to these companies,however, refuted any allegation connecting them with the Nigerian Petroleum Minister and affirmed that they have never been active in the importing of petroleum
products. The mention of Tridax in the Parliament’s report concerning the 15.9 million dollars referred, according to this source, to a subsidy that was never received. The source added that the companies would fare “much better if they benefited from political support.”

bettercreature:
PMB seems to be fighting corruption on news papers,hmmmm we are watching ooo,heaven is gonna fall if this government refuses to nominate ministers this new week

ROSSIKE:
We need to see arrests of the major protagonists.

bettercreature:
PMB seems to be fighting corruption on news papers,hmmmm we are watching ooo,heaven is gonna fall if this government refuses to nominate ministers this new week

disloman:
This thing wey dem call brain,u no get am.na buy u go buy go buy am.Some pple r so so so dumb.

bettercreature:
You are just a cum rag knowing the obvious but wont say it,The MKO,MANDELLA of this world are celebrated because they stood their ground to say the truth when it was the most important,i pity your life selling your future because of peanut you are getting from APC,because i'm APC supporter can never stop me from saying the truth,IF PMB refuse to deliever we shall vote for KOWA comes 2019