Taleveras Clears Air On Crude Oil Swaps

Source: thewillnigeria.com

Taleveras Group said the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) in its audit report listed 52,308,878.

00 USD value against it in the crude oil swap arrangement, and not 152,308, 878 litres as grossly misinterpreted.

NEITI in its audit report submitted to the National Assembly had accused four oil companies including Taleveras Group of under delivering petroleum products.

Leonard Kwentua, a senior trading and supply executive, Taleveras Petroleum, said Taleveras supply of gasoline under the swap arrangement are on- going activities and accounts are reconciled quarterly to determine what is oversupplied or under supplied.

He said the barter arrangement is a major factor responsible for the sustainability of supply and availability of gasoline across Nigeria.

'It is on record that Taleveras is one of the most active supplier of refined petroleum products in and out of Africa as a whole and in particular PPMC under the Duke/Taleveras arrangement, we are often than not, used as a performance example.

' According to him, there is an underlying security in form of a standby letter of credit in favour of the Pipelines and Product Marketing Company (PPMC) for swap transaction, adding that if a supplier does deliver the products, PPMC is in a position to cash the letter of credit since these letters of credits are issued in favour of PPMC by first class banks and must be bank confirmed prior to an offtake of the crude, so in essence no letter of credit, no lifting of crude.

'As an example, NEITI report showing 2011 under delivery of about USD 52 million in their table does not reflect the actual sum, as inventory warehousing cost is not applied to this figure.

Balance on account of this on-going term deal is fully secured, at all times, due to the fact there is an underlying security, always in place, by way of an active bank issued letter of credit, which in this instance stood at 200 million USD in favour of PPMC during the period stated.

As at December 2013, the balance on account shows Taleveras has over supplied in its Delivery obligations, subject to reconciliation with PPMC,' Kwentua said.

He warned that international financial institutions are very sensitive to sensational media reports and 'most recently these inaccurate reports do more harm than good in structuring finance for petroleum products supply into Nigeria.

'Taleveras is made up of young enterprising Nigerians, the Journey for us spans over 13 Years of active and gradual growth, conducting our various business activities diligently and professionally, we employ a great number of skilled and unskilled dynamic Nigerians, we have built a strong brand that has attracted serious international recognition doing business in various parts of the world and with top class counterparts, so we take our reputation and perceptions seriously,' he said.

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