Another Company in Controversial Nigerian Oil Deal
A source at the Nigerian offices of the Addax Petroleum Limited has told the Daily Trust newspaper that a third company, not Addax, might have been involved in the controversial LPRC-Addax oil deal commonly referred to as the Nigerian Oil Deal, which occurred during the managing directorship of Mr. Harry Greaves.
The newspaper, in its desire to investigate the non-transparency and controversy surrounding the deal, contacted Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) for comments on the John Morlu-led General Auditing Commission (GAC) audit report that revealed the malpractice, but the NNPC refused to comment. The paper indicates that NNPC’s spokesperson, Dr. Levi Ajuonuma, neither answered nor returned phone calls, nor did he reply to text messages sent him.
The Daily Trust then contacted the management of Addax for comments on the audit report, at which point a source in the public affairs unit of the company said that Addax was never involved in the controversial oil deal, as, according to the source, Addax does not do oil trading.
The Daily Trust: “But a source at the public affairs unit of Addax Petroleum Limited, who refused to be named, said they were aware of a similar report “some years back” but that the report ‘was not referring to Addax Petroleum and Exploration.’ He said Addax is not involved in oil trading but only in exploration and production, and so ‘there may be a company bearing a similar name which is involved in the Liberian oil deal.’”
The million-dollar question now is this: Which company is “bearing a similar name” and was involved in the controversial oil deal?
Upon reading the Daily Trust article, the New Dawn contacted the Liberia Petroleum Refining Company (LPRC) to see if the company could confirm whether there was another firm using a name similar to Addax and, if so, whether they could identify that firm. The person talked to assured us that they would get back to us, but they did not.
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It may be recalled that in an April 2011 audit report released by the John Morlu-led GAC, it was revealed that an oil deal signed and executed by the NNPC and the LPRC was marred by non-transparency, illegality and malpractice, in which the revenue generated on behalf of Liberian in the process was underestimated by US$104,991.32, while Nigeria lost more than one million barrels of crude oil in the process.
Our investigation continues.
