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Wednesday, April 29, 2020
In a press release on the website of Algerian state oil concern Sonatrach, the company has pushed back on press articles in reference to a March fuel shipment which resulted a Lebanese judge on Saturday arresting 16 employees and officials in oil facilities of Lebanon and the director of Sonatrach in Lebanon over fraud in oil import operations.
The employees, arrested by Mount Lebanon’s Public Appeal Prosecutor Ghada Aoun, are accused of receiving bribes for taking part in the fraud. Lebanon received on March 16 a fuel shipment from Sonatrach which was to be used in electricity production in Jiyeh and Zouk power plants. Test results showed that the shipment does not meet the required quality criteria.
Sonatrach maintains that since 2005 the Sonatrach Petroleum Corporation (SPC), its subsidiary, has been sending fuel cargos to the Middle Easter cargo under a contract which has been renewed every three years. “SPC obtains from several International Trading Companies to buy and make deliveries to EDL in accordance with the contract signed between SPC and the Lebanese Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW),” the Sonatrach statement confirmed.
The company went on to say that “on March 30, 2020, SPC was informed by the MEW of an operational concern regarding a quality defect on one of the last shipments of fuel oil delivered to EDL on March 25, 2020. Since then, SPC and the Lebanese MEW have been in constant dialogue in order to try to resolve the situation as quickly as possible and there is no doubt that in view of the excellent relations which link SPC to the MEW, the situation will probably and definitively be resolved soon.
“Furthermore, SPC totally refutes the inaccurate and untrue allegations about the involvement of a senior Sonatrach manager in this case and informs that the person heard by the Lebanese justice, is an independent maritime agent, working on behalf of SPC. SPC has always respected its contractual supply commitments vis-à-vis EDL Also, SPC is extremely confident and serene about the outcome of this case so that the two parties reach an agreement that preserves their
mutual interests and consolidates the excellent commercial relationship which has linked them for 15 years.”
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