Nigerian oil firm Lekoil has reached a deferred payment deal to keep ownership of an oilfield, the company said in a statement, after it discovered the loan it wanted to use for the purchase was fraudulent just as Economic and Financial Crime Commission EFCC has charged former attorney general suspected of taking bribes to facilitate a $1.3 billion oil block sale. Lekoil shares plummeted on the London stock market last week after finding that a $184 million loan it had announced from the Qatar Investment Authority was a “complex facade” by individuals pretending to represent the QIA. Tuesday’s statement said Lekoil has agreed to make final payments totalling $9.6 million to Optimum Petroleum Development Company, the operator of the OPL 310 oilfield, by 2 May.
The companies also agreed to defer to July 2020 Lekoil’s need to prove it can fund 42.86% of drilling costs. “We remain excited about the opportunities of OPL 310 and are focused on securing the necessary funding under the revised schedule,” said Lekan Akinyanmi, Lekoil’s chief executive.
“We are grateful for the support and commitment shown by our partner Optimum,” he said. The audacious scam has casts doubt on Nigeria’s hopes that its indigenous oil and gas producers can fill the gap left by international oil majors such as Exxon Mobil Corp and Chevron Corp, which are trying to sell Nigerian assets to focus on projects elsewhere.
Meanwhile Economic and Financial Crime Commission has charged former attorney general suspected of taking bribes to facilitate a $1.3 billion oil block sale, the agency said on Tuesday, in the latest twist in one of the industry’s biggest alleged corruption scandals. An international investigation into the 2011 sale of the offshore oilfield known as OPL 245 by Malabu Oil and Gas has entangled two of the industry’s biggest players, Shell and Eni, as well as an array of powerful figures from the previous Nigerian government.
Mohammed Adoke, Nigeria’s ex-attorney general, was charged with receiving the U.S. dollar equivalent of 300 million naira in 2013 to facilitate the OPL 245 deal and help waive taxes for Shell and Eni, according to a charge sheet filed in an Abuja high court last week. Reuters was unable to reach Adoke or his lawyer for immediate comment. The lawyer had previously said the former attorney general was confident he will be vindicated in court. Shell’s and Eni’s local subsidiaries were also charged with illegally assisting Adoke in waiving the taxes, according to the sheet. Malabu was owned by former petroleum minister Dan Etete. Shell and Eni, and their executives, have denied any wrongdoing. Etete has also denied wrongdoing. Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission detained Adoke, who served as attorney general from 2010 to 2015, in December, after Interpol arrested him in Dubai in November.
