Africa Oil & Gas: Nigerian Senate Investigating Brass LNG Over Alleged $784m Fraud

The Nigerian Senate will launch an investigation into corruption by NNPC and the still on the drawing board, Brass LNG project. Brass LNG has been in the planning stages for far longer than a decade and some of its foreign partners have pulled out due to arduous operating conditions and an unfavorable investment environment.

The project was originally set up in 2003 with a partnership made up of NNPC ConocoPhillips, ENI, and Chevron. Over the years Chevron and ConocoPhillips both dropped the project.

Nigeria’s Senate voted last week to initiate the investigation of Brass LNG and its banking records, a Senate motion document showed, according to a Reuters report. Allegedly there is some question regarding the funds on deposit for the project. Senate documents said that the most recent deposit into the account was $648 million in September 2016 and that it currently holds $137 million.

According to the Senate motion, while Brass LNG’s bank account was intended to be held by the Central Bank of Nigeria, corporate records show it is with Keystone Bank.