Authorities have launched an
investigation to determine whether the
government has been short-changed by a
state oil company scheme to swap crude for
refined products, the company, three oil
traders and a security source said.
The government may be losing 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.
The EFCC and domestic intelligence service
DSS began the investigation last month. A
spokesman for the EFCC said he was unable
to comment for the moment and the DSS did
not respond to requests for comment.
A security source with knowledge of the
matter said 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.
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.
JUSTIFIED
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 staff 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.
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