In a move towards transparency and accountability, Trafigura Private (Pte) Limited has disclosed that it paid $4.3 billion, about N860 billion to state entities in 2013, with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, receiving $2.5 billion, $2.5 billion of the payment.
It explained that the funds were used to purchase crude oil, refined petroleum products and gas from national oil companies in countries that have signed up to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, or candidate countries.
Trafigura stated that the payments made in Colombia, Ghana, Nigeria, Norway, Peru, and Trinidad and Tobago, were for an aggregate swap of crude oil and corresponding delivery of refined products from and to national oil companies in EITI countries.
The company however stated that its current report are just a first round of disclosures and just an initial step in an important and evolving process.
The company said, “While our disclosure in 2015 shows that our business with National Oil Companies in EITI implementing countries represents only a small part of our overall product flows, we believe that the encouraging reaction we have received so far from governments, business partners, non government organisations and the media justifies our decision to help advance this discussion further.
We have excluded the detail of payments to governments in non-EITI implementing countries because we, like other EITI supporting companies, see little merit in unilateral disclosure in countries that have no multi-stakeholder process comparable to the one developed by the EITI that commits all relevant players within the country, including the government, to report in line with an agreed format.”
