Court blocks Shell’s account in 20 banks over alleged oil theft
An interim mareva injunction directing commercial banks to block Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd accounts, has been granted by a Federal High Court in Lagos. The order which was granted to recover the cash value of 16 million barrels of crude oil allegedly diverted from AITEO Eastern E & P Company Limited, came after AITEO Eastern E & P Company Ltd filed an ex parte application. After AITEO and some other indigenous oil producers including Belemaoil, Eroton and Newcross had raised a dispute with Shell over allegations of unapproved methodology used in calculating the volume of crude it lifts on their behalf from the terminal, the oil giant admitted that it had installed unapproved metering systems and agreed to refund more than two million barrels of crude it had illegally taken from the producers between 2016 and 2018 following an investigation by the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR). This led to filing of an ex parte application in suit no FHC/