Federal government accused Shell of $406.75 million Oil theft

Shell petroleum company of Nigeria limited and its subsidiary, Shell Western Supply & Trading Limited, has been accused of Oil theft by the Federal government of Nigeria.

According to court documents presented in Lagos on Tuesday, it represents the shortfall of the money the multinational oil firm paid into the Federal government account with Central Bank of Nigeria.

The Federal Government’s lawyer, Prof. Fabia Ajogbwu, accused Shell of not declaring or under-declaring crude oil shipments during the period following forensic analysis of bills of laden and shipping documents.

Mr Ajogwu, claimed that the company cheated Nigeria of the revenue. He produced asworn affidavits of three US professionals.

Among the three professionals employed by the Federal government are :Prof. David Olowokere, a US citizen and a lead Analyst at Limos Group LLC, a technology,Oil and Gas Auditing Firm.

The others are Jerome Stanley, a counsel at Henchy & Hakenberg law firm and head of the legal team engaged by Loumo Group LLC and Micheal Kanko, founder and current Chief Executive Officer of Trade Data services Company.

The consortium of experts were able to track the global movements of the country’s hydro-carbon , including crude oil and gas with the main purpose of identifying the companies engaged in the practices that led to missing revenues from crude oil and Gas export sales to different parts of the world.

In a reconciliation of the export records from Nigeria with the import records at ports in the United States of America shows a lot of discrepancies.

The Federal government is therefore, seeking a court order to compel the two companies to pay $406.75million, being the total value of the missing revenue and interest payment of 21 percent per annum

Shell, in addition, is also asked to buy $406.75million for general exemplary damages and the cost of instituting the legal action.

However, the presiding Judge, Mojisola Olatoregun Isola, has adjourned the matter to the 20th of October for the mention of the case.