NNPC Says no 48m Barrels Missing, Called Samano Sa De CV Blackmailer

Following Samano Sa De CV publication that 48 million barrels of crude oil valued at an estimated $2.06 billion was illegally moved in 2015 from the country to China and eventually sold despite the company informing the then Chief of staff to the President, Abba Kyari, the Group Managing Director, NNPC, Mele Kyari and other top government officials. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has now denied any knowledge of such theft.

In a letter signed by Mr Kehinde Ogunwumiju (SAN), NNPC’s lawyer from Afe Babalola & Co., and addressed to Samano Sa De CV’s counsel, Mr Gboyega Oyewole (SAN), Ogunwumiju claimed that the letter sent to the corporation was “not only unfounded but frivolous”.

He described the whole whistleblowing of Samano Sa De CV as “a gold-digging scheme” aimed at “blackmailing and extorting money from our client and the Federal Government of Nigeria”.

The NNPC’s lawyer stated, “We wish to emphatically and unequivocally state for the record that our client vehemently denies your client’s claim that it provided any information to NNPC or the Federal Government of Nigeria which information led to the identification and/or recovery of 48 million barrels of stolen Nigerian Bonny Light Crude Oil stored in the People’s Republic of China.

“Accordingly, it is our client’s position that your client is not entitled to the payment of five per cent of the value of the allegedly stolen crude or any amount whatsoever as compensation for information it purportedly gave to the Federal Government of Nigeria in respect of the said stolen crude stored in the People’s Republic of China.”

He also stated that “it was impossible to ship 48 million barrels of crude oil from Nigeria to China without any record or trace of same” especially because, “as of 2015, the daily production of crude ml in Nigeria was below 1.6 million barrels.”

Ogunwumiju added, “Therefore, 48 million barrels of crude oil would have been the total production capacity of the whole country for a month.

“It is simply impossible that one-month crude oil production would disappear without any record or trace.”

According to him, notwithstanding the firm’s failure to provide evidence to support its claims, “relevant officials of the government were mandated to proceed to China to verify the claims of the existence of the said stolen Nigerian crude oil.”

He stated, “The said delegation discovered that the Samao’s claim was false and baseless. Consequently, the government severed communications with the syndicate.

“Miffed by this, Messrs Ramirez and Jose Salazar Tinajero, acting as agents of Samao, resorted to blackmail and intimidation of key officials of the government and the NNPC, threatening to make public information that the said 48 million barrels of oil had been recovered, sold and the proceeds therefrom, looted by some government officials and the NNPC when it was aware that this was untrue.

“They also demanded $125,000,000 from the said government officials, which was conveniently and rightfully ignored.

“Thereafter, NNPC reported this case of attempted blackmail to the Department of State Services and the Nigeria Police Force.”