[ 2011-04-07 ]

Sahara Oil denies duping Ghana
Sahara oil has refuted allegations made against it
by a section of the media that it illegally used a
fake company to transact an oil supply contract
with the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), swindling the
state of funds running into millions of Ghana
cedis.

According to media reports Sahara oil had duped
TOR in a brass crude transaction worth 48 million
dollars and had used a non-existent company
Refinee Petroplus to execute its plan.

It had also alleged that Sahara oil had been paid
48 million dollars by TOR for 600 thousand barrels
of brass river crude supplied by another entity
and misrepresented Ms Yvette Foli as its
representative in the transaction with TOR.

But Sahara oil who has threatened legal action
against the media houses in a three page press
release dismissed the allegations describing them
as false, scandalous and injurious to its
business.

The oil company which has been silent for a while
now has said there had not been any malfeasance,
ill intention or unprofessional conduct on its
part or on the part of any of its associate
companies in the contract for the supply of 600
thousand barrels of brass crude oil as alleged in
various malicious publications.

According to it Refinee Petroplus is a company
validly existing and operating under the laws of
British Virgin Islands. This is clearly contrary
to the false and malicious allegations that the
company is nonexistent.

It further states that Refinee Petroplus entered
into a contract with TOP to supply TOR with 600
thousand barrels of brass crude. The transaction
was financed by letters of credit established with
BNP Paribas. Pertroplus performed its contractual
obligation under the contract and received payment
from BNP Paribas.

Sahara oil in response to the allegations
regarding Ms Yvette Foli said at the time of
concluding the TOR negotiations Petroplus duly
appointed her as a country representative for the
purpose of acting as a correspondent executing the
contract and ensuring that the operational
modalities in relation to the contract were
concluded without any operational lapse or
failure.

It further states in the release that
representatives of Petroplus and TOR had
negotiated a contract for the supply of 600
thousand barrels of brass crude oil to refine
Pertroplus on a free board basis.

Refinee Pertroplus had secured for the crude on
the international market from Sahara a long
standing and well established custom among
companies that trade internationally. Sahara also
states that there is no way that the TOR vessel
would have been able to berth at the designated
terminal if the sequence of stipulated information
and required approvals had not been exchanged and
obtained by all parties involved.

Source - Citifmonline

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