Nigeria sues state companies for illegal oil exports

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Nigerian authorities are suing the country’s leading oil companies for $12.7 billion of crude oil that are told to have been illegally exported to the United States between 2011 and 2014, the Calgary Herald informs citing the country’s officials.

Next week the Federal High Court in Lagos starts hearings in cases filed against Nigerian subsidiaries of U.S. multinational Chevron, British-Dutch Shell, Italian ENI's Agip, France's Total and Brasoil of Brazilian Petrobas, according to the court data.

The newspaper states citing to some sources familiar with the situation that Nigeria's government claims the companies did not declare more than 57 million barrels of crude oil shipments. It was found out after audits of declared exports and what was unloaded in the United States that some shiploads registered less when they left Nigeria and more on reaching the destination and some entire shiploads to the United States were not declared in Nigeria at all. The oil companies refuse to comment since the issue “is the subject of ongoing litigation”.