Non-disclosure of lifted crude: Court freezes 3 oil & gas firms’ accounts

Justice Daniel Osiagor, sitting at a Federal High Court, Lagos,  has directed 18 commercial banks in Nigeria, to freeze and place a ‘Post No Debt’ (PND) on any sum of money, standing to the credit accounts belonging to three oil and gas companies.

The companies are Petralon 54 Limited; Petralon Energy Limited, and Tako E&P Solutions Limited, for their alleged failure to declare the  total quantity of crude sold, the amount it was sold and the royalty paid to the government.

• NASFAT worried about prevalence of failed marriages
• How floods submerged Olam’s 4,400 hectares of rice in Nasarawa

The court ordered the 18 banks to disclose on oath, details of the amounts standing as credit balance in the respective accounts of the oil and gas companies’ accounts.

The banks directed to comply with the orders are Access Bank Plc; Ecobank Bank Plc, First Bank of Nigeria Plc; First City Monument Bank Plc; Guaranty Trust Bank Plc; Jaiz Bank Plc; Keystone Bank Plc; Polaris Bank Plc, and Stanbic Ibtc Bank Plc.

Others are Standard Chartered Bank Plc; Sterling Bank Plc; Union Bank of Nigeria Plc; United Bank for Africa Plc; Zenith Bank Plc; Globus Bank Plc; Titan Bank Plc; Providus Bank Plc, and Fidelity Bank Plc.

The court also directed the above-mentioned banks to file their affidavit of compliance within 14 days of receipt of the order.

Justice Osiagor further made an order of interlocutory injunction restraining the three firms from tampering with, withdrawing, or dissipating the proceeds of the sale of the crude oil produced by the joint venture partners, plaintiff, Petralon Energy Limited and Tako E&P Solutions Limited, who are second and fourth defendants, in the exploration operation at Dawes Island pursuant to the Oil Mining Licence awarded to the plaintiff by Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission (NURC) the third defendant’s predecessor in title.

The court also ordered the three firms, their agents, directors, representatives and any person acting for or in trust for them, to disclose on oath the total quantity of crude sold, the amount for which it was sold, the royalty paid to the government, and the balance left.