A Federal High Court in ALagos will on June 6 resume trial in a suit filed by the federal government against Shell Western Supply & Trading Limited over alleged 406.7 million dollars deprivation in crude oil shipment.
The suit numbered FHC/L/CS/336/16 was filed in Lagos by Prof. Fabian Ajogwu (SAN) on behalf of the federal government.
Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nig. Ltd. and its subsidiary, Shell Western Supply & Trading Ltd. are defendants in the suit before Justice Mojisola Olatoregun.
The trial was stalled on Tuesday following absence of the judge who is said to be on another official assignment.
In the suit, the federal government is claiming the sum of 406.7 million dollars from the defendants as shortfall of money paid by them into the federal government account.
The money was said to be for crude oil lifted by the defendants in 2013 and 2014.
The government said that the Anglo-Dutch company did not declare or under-declared crude oil shipments during the period.
It said that forensic analysis of bills of laden and shipping documents showed that Shell cheated Nigeria with regard to the revenue.
According to the government, experts tracked global movement of Nigeria’s hydro-carbons, including crude oil and gas, and identified that the companies engaged in practices that led to missing revenues from crude oil sales and gas export to different parts of the world.
