Aiteo Group, an indigenous energy giant, has cried out load over planned attacks on its corporate integrity.
In a press statement issued in Lagos and signed by its Group Head, Media Operations, Mr. Ndiana Matthew, Aiteo said the latest in the series of plots to malign its reputation and that of its Executive Vice Chairman, Benedict Peters, came to the fore following an Arise Television news coverage of a press conference on March 18, 2021, organised by the Concerned Nigerians and a number of other civil society organisations, including the Arewa Consultative Youth Movement, African Human Rights Centre and National Association of Nigerian Students. It pointed out that in in the course of the press conference, the speakers alerted the public of the existence of a plot by oil giant, Shell, to instigate and propagate a global smear campaign against it.
Aiteo further stated that what transpired in the press conference is that the participants said that Shell has committed substantial resources towards impugning its corporate integrity, presumably to exert penalty and punishment on it for mustering the temerity to demand and insist on its contractual and commercial relationship rights.
It added that: “We have also become aware that the execution of this campaign will rely heavily on the dissemination and deployment – anonymously, pseudonymously and by remunerated proxy – of deliberate misinformation and incorrect reportage aimed at discrediting and tarnishing our reputation, locally and internationally. This oblique and disingenuous campaign, which we now realise commenced a few weeks ago, appears to have been shamelessly escalated and brazenly intensified”.
Aiteo said it ‘sin’ is the demand that Shell accounts and pays for over 16 million barrels of oil belonging to it and the Nigerian government, which is missing through its (Shell) actions and activities.
It explained that hitherto unchallenged evidence of this missing crude is exemplified by the discrepancies in the production figures independently reported by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR). As is standard in the industry, it said, DPR reports actual reconciled production volumes from the wells that flow to the terminal, and these records and statistics align with Aiteo’s reconciled production figures. On the other hand, NNPC reports crude measured at the tanks in the terminal exclusively managed, operated and controlled by the IOC, it stated, adding that it is the analysis of these independent reports that demonstrates the glaring discrepancies.
Aiteo, therefore, urges all its stakeholders to apply discretion and circumspection in dealing with malicious publications about it, and expressed confidence in their (stakeholders) capacity to discern the true position from the regurgitation of falsehoods aimed at denigrating the reputation of Aiteo and its management.