Reallocation of crude oil volume from Nigeria’s Bonny Terminal between 2016 and 2018, following gaps in metered volume between oil majors and some indigenous firms, is responsible for allegations of crude theft in the nation’s onshore operations.
The DPR, having discovered crude oil metering discrepancies in Shell operations, had, in a letter dated 14th December 2020, demanded that Shell should refund the over two million barrels of crude oil illegally reallocated between June 2016 and July 2018. The Shell’s letter, addressed to the Director, DPR and referenced SPDC-COM-2021-00951, reads in part: “We note your directives as contained in the above-referenced letter and wish to confirm that the SPDC will implement the refund of the 2,081,678 barrels of crude oil from the Trans Niger Pipeline injectors to the Nembe Creek Trunk Line injectors over the period from the end of January 2021 till November 2021 following Schedule 111 as contained in the Department of Petroleum Resources letter...
WHILE SPDC has accepted the reallocation and agreed to implement the refund of the over two million barrels of crude oil from the Trans Niger Pipeline over 11 months, AITEO has 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 the cash value of more than 16 million barrels of crude allegedly diverted by the oil giant.
The court also directed the 20 banks to “ring-fence any cash, bonds, deposits, all forms of negotiable instruments to the value of $2.7 billion and pay all standing credits to Shell companies up to the value into an interest yielding account in the name of the Chief Registrar of the court.”The CR is to “hold the funds in trust” pending the hearing of the motion and determination of the motion on notice for interlocutory injunction filed before it by AITEO.