THE management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has raised the alarm over fake letters of authorisation currently in circulation, purportedly from the NNPC to buy and/or sell Nigerian crude oil.
The corporation, in a statement on Monday, urged members of the public to be wary of persons with fraudulent intents circulating letters authorising the lifting of Bonny Light crude oil from Nigeria.
The statement quoted a paragraph in one of the fake letters of authorisation in circulation as follows: “We hereby confirm that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has entered into Contractual arrangements directly with LAVI INTERNATIONAL CORP, to supply Bonny Light Crude Oil to the Lavi International Corp Associated Refineries and or Global Traders, and that the LAVI INTERNATIONAL CORP has the power and authority to sell or otherwise deal with the Bonny Light Crude Oil, the subject of those contractual agreements.”
The NNPC, however, stated that MESSRS LAVI INTERNATIONAL CORP was not one of its crude oil off-takers for the 2014-2015 Term Contract Period and, therefore, had not been allocated any crude oil volume as speculated in the fake letter of authorisation.
It further noted that the list of local and international companies duly approved as NNPC’s crude oil off-takers for the 2014-2015 Term Contract Period had been widely publicised and called on members of the public to avail themselves of such information, to avoid being duped by unscrupulous elements.
