Court to hear FG’s $406.7m crude oil theft suit against Shell December 8

A Lagos Federal High Court will on December 8 hear the Federal Government’s suit against Shell Western Supply and Trading Limited over an alleged $406.75 million crude oil theft.

The Federal Government had accused Shell Petroleum Development Company and its subsidiary Shell Western Supply and Trading of crude oil theft arising from shortfall of the money paid by the multinational oil firm in the account of the Nigerian government with the Central Bank of Nigeria for crude lifted in 2013 and 2014.

Government lawyer, Fabian Ajogwu, filed the suit with no FHC/L/CS/336/16 at a Lagos Federal High Court under the jurisdiction of Justice Mojisola Olatoregun. It was slated for hearing yesterday but could not go on as the trial judge was absent. It has fixed December 8 for hearing.

Meanwhile, the plaintiff has filed a motion to amend its statement of claim, and has yet to move same before the court.

In the supporting affidavit, the Federal Government had accused the Anglo-Dutch company of not declaring or under-declaring crude oil shipments during the period. It said that this was discovered following forensic analysis of bills of laden and shipping documents, adding that Shell cheated Nigeria of the revenue.

According to the affidavit, the consortium of experts tracked the global movements of the country’s hydrocarbons, including crude oil and gas. They identified the companies engaged in the practices that led to missing revenues from crude oil and gas export sales to different parts of the world.

They also revealed discrepancies in the export records from Nigeria with the import records at US ports.

The plaintiff averred that the undeclared shipments between January 2013 and December 2014 brought the total value of the entire shortfall to $406.75 million.

The defendants were said to have failed to respond to a Federal Government letter through its lawyer, seeking clarification as to the discrepancies.

The Federal Government is, therefore, seeking a court order to compel the two companies to pay $406.75 million, being the total value of the missing revenue and interest payment at 21 percent per annum.

In addition, the government is also asking Shell to pay general and exemplary damages in the sum of $406.75 million as well as the cost of the legal action it has instituted.

The Federal Government had also sued Chevron, Total and Agip, in a similar case before the court. The Federal Government is asking for a total of $12.7 billion over alleged non-declaration of 57 million barrels of crude shipped to the US between 2011 and 2014.

They are among 15 oil majors targeted by the government for the recovery of $17 billion in deprived revenue, according to the News Agency of Nigeria.