FG allegedly institutes action against IOCs over $12bn in missing oil revenue

The Federal Government of Nigeria has allegedly instituted civil actions against Shell, Chevron, Agip and other prominent oil companies to recover over N2 trillion in missing revenues from over 57 million barrels of crude oil shipments that were either not declared or under-declared between the period 2011 and 2014, Breaking Times reports.

In suits filed on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria by a team of lawyers against the oil giants, the FG is praying the Federal High Court to direct the defendants to pay into the Federal Government of Nigeria’s account with the Central Bank of Nigeria, the  sums of over $0.6 Billion (USD 51,033,180, USD 462,681,780, and USD 145, 848, 551, being the value of missing revenues accruable to the Government of Nigeria from the shortfall/ undeclared/ under-declared crude oil shipments made by the Defendants.

The significant crude oil theft takes the form of accounting fraud, non-declaration or under declaration of crude and gas cargoes. The cases reveal instances where an oil tanker declares that it loaded about 50,000 barrels at Nigeria’s port, but the same vessel on arrival at a port in the USA, would discharge over 60,000 barrels of crude oil. It is the differences that account for the losses running into billions of dollars in lost revenues.