BNI QUIZ GNPC BOSS

As Ghanaians struggle to come to terms with the disappearance of a marine vessel from the Saltpond Oil Fields with indigenous crude oil worth $2 million, details of how the whole deal was struck and the circumstances of the disappearance of the vessel last Friday have been obtained by this paper.

The vessel, M.V. Asteria I disappeared from the production platform (rig) at Saltpond, Mr. Louie at about 2200hrs last Friday and has since not been sighted.

Emerging details of the Houdini act suggest that the Nigeria-based Lushan-Eternit has pulled a fast one on Ghana in a typical 419 style that will be the envy of the chieftains of 419 in Nigeria.

As of last Friday when the vessel disappeared with the crude oil, the Nigerian Representative of Lushan-Eternit in Ghana, Ken Orhem had also disappeared, according to intelligence information available to this paper.

Ken Orhem was reportedly seen on the production rig at Saltpond earlier on the same Friday. He told the rig workers that he was coming to Accra to spend the weekend but apparently when he got to Accra, he left with the next available flight, two hours before M.V. Asterias also left Ghanaian waters.

Days before the vessel left Ghanaian waters, Lushan-Eternit representatives had informed GNPC that the vessel was fully loaded with crude and a replacement vessel was being brought in.

The replacement vessel arrived at the Saltpond on Thursday (a day before Asteria and Ken Orhem vamoosed) and is currently buoyed there, firmly in the grips of the authorities. The only snag however is that whereas M.V. Asteria was chartered from Ocean & Oil, a British company, the new vessel was chartered from a new and different company, thus, it may be very difficult to impound it.

In a land where the search for crude oil has reached the levels at which desert inhabitants search for an oasis, the scandal has sent government officials scampering to inform Interpol and other international security agencies for assistance to apprehend the said vessel, M.V. Asteria and its crew.

As at 10:20 a.m. yesterday when this Reporter visited the Tema head office of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), personnel of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) had arrived to question the Managing Director, Mr. M.O. Boateng.

Last Tuesday (two days ago), this Reporter espied some officials of GNPC at the Osu Castle, ostensibly to brief Government officials about the disappearance of M.V. Asteria.

Information gathered by The Independent points to the fact that there were some disagreements between the Government of Ghana, GNPC and Lushan-Eternit as to equity stake in Saltpond Offshore Producing Company since the change of Government in 2001.

GNPC management had entered into a joint venture partnership with Lushan-Eternit, a US- based company which has a Ghanaian, Quincy Sintim-Aboagye as one of the lynchpins. Under the terms of that agreement, SOPCL was formed with GNPC owning 40 per cent stake whilst Lushan-Eternit had 60 per cent.Both percentages, according to the agreement, were to be the net of all crude sales after all production expenses have deducted and principal interest on loans paid. The initial capitalisation was pegged at $3 million and GNPC was to pay for its equity in the joint venture with the Saltpond production platform (rig), Mr. Louie. The agreement was signed in January, 2000.

However, with the change of government in January 2001, Government asked for renegotiation of the joint venture agreement. A Committee was therefore set up to investigate the circumstances under which Lushan-Eternit GNPC and signed the 60-40 per cent joint venture agreement. The Committee after several months of sitting and interviewing almost every one who mattered in the signing of the deal submitted its report through the then Chief Director of the Ministry of Energy, Mrs. Wiredu.

The Independent found out that following the submission of the Committee's report, Government decided that the joint venture partnership was to be re-arranged with Lushan-Eternit now having a 55 per cent stake whilst GNPC got 45 per cent.

As a result, the value of GNPC assets in the joint venture was revalued as part of the recommendations of the said Committee and increased to $10 million instead of the $500, 000 as existed under the 60-40 per cent permutation. The balance of GNPC's revalued assets was to be given to SOPCL as a loan.

The GNPC position, this paper learnt from an Energy Expert we contacted yesterday was that "GNPC under its establishment law had the right to go into any field and develop its oil and gas potentials. Because it could not do this alone, it hired Lushan-Eternit as a contactor and formed the joint venture company to develop the Saltpond Oil Fields, thus effectively not going through Cabinet and Parliament and yet not doing anything illegal."

Our investigations revealed that Government decided to abrogate the 60-40 per cent permutation that it inherited because the then GNPC management did not allegedly send the agreement to Cabinet for assent and subsequently to Parliament for ratification. The Energy Expert contacted by this paper also disclosed that "Government had this understanding that there should have been a petroleum agreement between it, GNPC and Lushan-Eternit which had to be assented by Cabinet and ratified by Parliament, thus because this was not done, the whole agreement was viewed as nullity and void."

This development, this paper learnt, brought about a major disagreement as Lushan-Eternit felt there was a breach. Eventually, GNPC reached a memorandum of understanding with Lushan-Eternit as to the proposed 55-45 per cent equity stake permutation.

The Independent found out there has therefore been no contract between Lushan-Eternit and GNPC regarding the proposed 55-45 per cent equity stake permutation.

Whilst the disagreement was being sorted out, Lushan-Eternit is said to have chartered M.V. Asterias I at the cost of $9,000 a day and was thus incurring debts as the issue remain unresolved.

GNPC sources told this paper that Lushan-Eternit has acted in bad faith in the last months to the disappearing act. A source at GNPC told us that "Under the agreement, Lushan-Eternit was to produce oil from the Saltpond Field and sell and as we paid their debts, we must also pay ourselves at the same time. This was to prevent a situation where after paying their debts, they could fold up and leave and thus leave GNPC worse off."

The Independent found out that in what can aptly be described as 419, Lushan-Eternit claimed that they had taken a loan of $9million from the Continental Trust Bank of Nigeria to work the Saltpond Fields. All attempts by GNPC to get details of the said loan never materialised as Lushan-Eternit kept changing the figures involved. At certain points, they even claimed the loan was $7 million.

GNPC is on record to have taken a decision that issues relating to the loan and other debts presented by Lushan-Eternit are sorted out, it was not going to recommend to Government to sign any contract with them. The Independent was also informed that Lushan-Eternit have used all sorts of tricks to hoodwink GNPC.

On the debts allegedly owed the owners of M.V. Asterias, it was learnt that though Lushan-Eternit had been telling GNPC of it, demands from GNPC to them to bring the Charter Party Agreement for scrutiny were not responded to. "We asked for the Charter Party for the past four months. It was only recently they submitted a bill of $1,900. They never told us about this even though we are supposed to be partners.

Lushan-Eternit is also reported to have showed little discomfort with the disappearance of the vessel and have rather asked GNPC to contact Interpol if they are worried.

As we went to press, M.V. Asterias had still not been sighted but industry sources said it may not take too long to grab the Captain.