Alleged Oil Diversion: Nigerian court declines to unfreeze Shell s bank accounts premiumtimesng.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from premiumtimesng.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Citi Bank and two other commercial banks are in big trouble for violating a court order freezing the accounts of Dutch Oil giant, Royal Shell, in a case involving the alleged theft of over two million barrels of crude.
A federal court in Lagos had issued an injunction barring Royal Dutch Shell’s Nigerian subsidiaries from withdrawing money at 20 local banks until it ringfences potential damages in a lawsuit brought against the oil major by Aiteo Eastern E&P.
Aiteo is accusing Shell of deliberate improper metering of the Nigerian company’s oil exports from the Bonny Light terminal. It is seeking $2.7 billion over the pipeline deal plus $1.28 billion for lost oil sales, the court documents show.
Shell Petroleum Development Company
Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) has said it is working to secure expeditious discharge of court order freezing its accounts, which was obtained by AITEO Eastern (E&P) Company Limited.
AITEO had sought an ex-parte order from a Federal High Court in Ikoyi, Lagos for an injunction directing 20 commercial banks to block accounts of SPDC and affiliates of the Royal Dutch Shell company operating in Nigeria in a bid to recover cash value of more than 16 million barrels of crude allegedly diverted by the oil giant.
Justice Oluremi Oguntoyinbo gave the order in suit no FHC/L/CS/52/2021, directing the 20 banks where Shell companies operate accounts in Nigeria to “ring-fence any cash, bonds, deposits and all forms of negotiable instruments.”
Business/ ENERGY
For a while, insinuations that certain oil companies operating in Nigeria engage in underhand activities in the process of carrying out their businesses had been rife. Emmanuel Addeh writes that the latest dust raised by Aiteo E&P’s accusation that Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) wilfully carried out unfair dealings against it, has again brought the matter to the fore, highlighting that the indigenous oil concern appears to have a strong case against the international oil giant
It started like the usual rumours, mostly unsubstantiated, of how the oil sector is exceptionally dirty, but since documents surfaced about how SPDC allegedly short-changed some local oil firms, it has almost taken the form of a scandal.The bone of contention is that between 2016 and 2018, SPDC putting to use a metering device not approved by the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) short-changed local operators, Aiteo, being the hardest hit, to the tune of millions of barrel
Festus Akanbi
There are strong indications that last Tuesday’s injunction of a Federal High Court, Lagos, barring Royal Dutch Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary from withdrawing money at 20 local banks until it ring-fences potential damages in a lawsuit brought against the oil major by Aiteo Eastern E&P is already rattling the oil firm.
The interim Mareva injunction is aimed at recovering the cash value of more than 16 million barrels of crude allegedly diverted by the oil giant from the indigenous oil company, AITEO.
However, SPDC is said to have mandated its lawyers to work round the clock in order to get the injunction vacated when the court proceeding resumes next Wednesday.