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Botched
Award for Governor Idris: America lady raises alarm over SSS harassment
From CHUKS EHIRIM, Abuja
AN American lady; Hilda Josef, who is country representative of Kasha International
Agriculture Development Organization... Reach
Out Nigeria takes Independence celebration to next level
By
KELECHI DECA
AS Shakespeare rightly points that there is a tide in the affairs of men,
I believe there is also a tide in the affairs of a nation and the waves of
that tide started rising in 2007...
Importers
of unregistered products now to pay N5m fine
By ANDREW OJIEZEL
WORRIED about reported cases of faking of registered products, despite persistent
battle to curb the menace, the Director General of National for Food, Drug
Administration and Control ...
Niger
Delta Crisis: Shell, other oil companies face probe
By NWADIKE UGOCHUKWU
HARDER times await oil multinational companies operating in the Niger Delta
region with the searchlight of the country's security agents now beaming on
them even as the abduction of...
Bankole,
Almona-Isei troubles escalate
From OGBU NGENE, Abuja
WITH the House
of Representatives set to resume sitting, more troubles are said to be laying
siege for Speaker Hon. Dimeji Bankole. The high regard...
Ernest Chukwuka
Anene Ndukwe @ 60: The measure of a man
IN his
well talked of luminous memoir titled The Measure of a Man, actor, producer
and American icon, Sidney Poitier said “I have no wish to...
News
• Yar'Adua identifies
root cause of nation's under-development
• Christ Embassy unveils
ReachOut Nigeria, Thursday
• Govt sacks residents of
Imo parliamentary quarters
• Constituency
delimitation: Ideato leaders reject Rep member
• PTDF
targets 70 per cent of Nigeria 's manpower needs
• Money bags blamed for
nation's political crisis
• Stop parading yourself
as monarch, Daniel warns Ijoko community leader
• Native doctor killed by
angry youths
• Rep member empowers 1,000
Ebonyi youths
• ‘Abscond from duty,
lose your job’
• 20 killed in communal
clash
• Human trafficking uncheckable
in Nigeria –Monarch
• 1,000 illegal structures
demolished
• Commuters
poised for war over 'Okada' helmets
• Women empowerment gets
boost
• Educationist wants children
of public servants banned from private aschools
• Govt move against fresh
outbreak of Bird flu
Chevron,
Shell in bribery scam
•As Shell suspends production
By OLUTAYO OLUBI
TWO global oil majors, Chevron Corporation, world's fifth largest non-government
energy company, and Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe's biggest oil producer,
have both been accused of bribery in a report made public by the United States
Department of the Interior's inspector general. The two came under fire in
a government report on alleged improper ties between oil companies and U.S.
officials whose job it was to oversee royalties from oil-drilling contracts.
The report, put out by the Department of the Interior's inspector general,
alleges that several oil industry employees gave improper gifts to government
workers in the Minerals Management Service, used drugs with them and had improper
sexual relationships. In its opening section, the report blames Chevron's
tactics for delays in the investigation. The report singles out the San Ramon
company's “ultimate refusal … to cooperate with our investigation.”
But Chevron said it had surrendered all documents requested by investigators
months ago, but had allowed its employees to refuse to be interviewed because
of concerns about their individual rights.
“When the government requested interviews … Chevron took steps
to facilitate those interviews,” said Donald Campbell, a spokesman for
Chevron. “However, those employees chose to exercise their individual
rights and declined to be interviewed, following their independent counsel's
advice” Five Chevron workers refused interviews, the Interior Department
report said, as did one former Shell worker.
Shell was also named in the report along with Gary Williams Energy Corporation
and Hess Corporation. The report says Chevron representatives took government
employees out for meals and drinks, brought them to customer appreciation
dinners, and bought them golf balls and other gifts, spending nearly $2,500
over a five year period. An MMS employee allegedly had a romantic relationship
with an oil scheduler for Chevron, the report said. “We take any allegation
of ethics violations by our employees very seriously, and we began a review
of these allegations immediately,” said Campbell.
He added: “The government's report does not, because it cannot, say
that Chevron failed to follow any of the Royalty-in-Kind Program's rules and
regulations.”
Industry watchers believe that such a scam in not new as the two majors are
well known to be neck deep in such activity in whichever country they operate.
National Daily equally gathered that Shell has extended a suspension of export
obligations for its Bonny Light crude after discovering further leaks on a
pipeline attacked by militants in July.
Shell Petroleum Development Company, the company's local unit, ``is extending
the force majeure it declared on July 29 on the Bonny light offtake program,''
spokesman Rainer Winzenried said. The extent of the suspension will ``depend
on the progress of repair work,'' he said.
Force majeure is a legal clause that allows producers to miss contracted deliveries
because of circumstances beyond their control. Nigeria has fallen behind Angola
as Africa's biggest oil exporter this year as militant attacks on oil installations
and pipelines crimp production. Bonny Light is the light, sweet variety of
oil, typically pumped by Nigeria and favored by U.S. refiners for the quantity
of gasoline it produces.
Shell originally declared force majeure on Bonny deliveries in July, August
and September after militants attacked the Nembe Creek trunk-line in the Kula
area of Rivers state, shutting some crude production. Nigeria's main militant
group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND, claimed
responsibility for the attack.
``The company had worked hard to repair the pipeline and bring back production
only to discover more leaks from the effects of the attack,'' Winzenried said.
Exports of Bonny Light were originally scheduled to increase 24 percent in
October as production resumed. Shipments were scheduled to average 196,774
barrels a day, compared with 158,333 barrels a day in September. Bonny Light
production is normally in excess of 300,000 barrels a day.
