Oscarline Onwuemenyi
18 March 2017, Sweetcrude, Abuja – Integrated energy firm, Aiteo Group, says it not owing the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, over crude oil swap deals.
The company was reacting in strong refutal of last week’s report that it is indebted to the state oil company over crude oil swap deals undertaken a few years ago.
In a statement signed by Aiteo’s Senior Manager, Corporate Communications, Mr. Matthew Ndiana-Abasi, the firm denied that it owed any money to the NNPC, noting that insinuations as contained in the report “are completely false and untrue”.
“For the avoidance of doubt and most crucially, it is entirely incorrect and thus false that we are indebted to NNPC in the amount that you have indicated or any other monies whatsoever. The correct position is that we do not owe NNPC the debt that you allege or any monies that can form the subject of the recovery action,” the statement noted.
In the original story, it was alleged that Aiteo, alongside two other entities, is indebted to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to the total sum of $42 million over crude swap deals.
The report also alleged that the debts arose as unpaid debts from crude oil allocations to three Nigerian oil marketing companies and that the companies capitalised on their closeness to the former minister of petroleum resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, to obtain crude oil allocations from Duke Oil, a subsidiary of the NNPC, without paying for the products lifted.
Maintaining that these allegations were “false and highly damaging” Aiteo noted that “as a matter of law, any false suggestion that a commercial entity such as ours is indebted to a creditor and is experiencing difficulties with those facilities are inherently defamatory”.
It urged that the media adopt a professional approach in the discharge of their duties, including contacting the company to verify information intended for publication.
Efforts by SweetcrudeReports to reach the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs of NNPC, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, on the matter, was unsuccessful. Calls and text messages to his telephone line were not replied.
Aiteo is one of Africa’s fastest-growing energy leaders. It prides itself as having a clear vision for the future with the experience and assets necessary to provide oil and gas on a regional and global scale.
