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Nembe Exploration and Production Company Limited says funds recovered by the EFCC from oil companies over the Nembe Creek Trunkline represented unpaid transportation fees owed to its joint venture, not recoveries from the company.
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The company says it operated the pipeline on behalf of its joint venture with NNPCL and pursued outstanding payments from third-party users, including Newcross Exploration and Production Limited.
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Nembe attributes the accumulation of unpaid fees to years of crude oil theft, pipeline vandalism, insecurity, and operational disruptions that complicated crude transportation and volume reconciliation.
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The company maintains that a separate stamp duty issue arising from the acquisition of OML 29 and the Nembe Creek Trunkline remains under reconciliation with statutory authorities and is unrelated to the EFCC recovery.
November 13, (THEWILL) – Nembe Exploration and Production Company Limited, formerly known as Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Production Company Limited, has rejected media reports suggesting that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) recovered funds from it over outstanding obligations relating to the Nembe Creek Trunkline (NCTL).
The company said the funds recovered by the anti-graft agency from oil companies, including Newcross Exploration and Production Limited, represented outstanding pipeline transportation fees owed to its joint venture (JV) with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), insisting that the recoveries were not made from Nembe.
In a statement issued on Friday by its management, the company said recent reports had created a misleading impression about its role in the EFCC’s recovery exercise, particularly regarding the outstanding transportation fees.
Nembe explained that it operated the Nembe Creek Trunkline on behalf of its joint venture with NNPCL and provided crude oil transportation services to third-party operators, including Newcross, which were required to pay for using the pipeline.
According to the company, the outstanding fees accumulated over several years, prompting it to pursue the indebtedness on behalf of the joint venture before the EFCC intervened.
It also clarified that its corporate name was changed from Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Production Company Limited to Nembe Exploration and Production Company Limited in the second quarter of 2025.
How Outstanding Pipeline Fees Accumulated
Providing background to the outstanding payments, Nembe traced the matter to years of operational difficulties in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry, particularly from the period following the COVID-19 pandemic.
It said widespread crude oil theft, pipeline vandalism, insecurity, and other operational disruptions affected crude transportation through the Nembe Creek Trunkline.
The company explained that the challenges also complicated the reconciliation of crude oil volumes delivered by individual operators, making it increasingly difficult to establish and settle outstanding transportation obligations.
Nembe said it had made repeated attempts to recover the unpaid fees before the EFCC became involved.
These efforts, according to the statement, included issuing direct payment demands, exchanging correspondence and engaging the companies that used the pipeline.
However, the engagements did not result in full settlement of the outstanding indebtedness.
The company said the EFCC subsequently deployed its statutory investigative and recovery powers to facilitate the collection of the outstanding payments owed to the joint venture.
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EFCC Recovered JV’s Money, Not Nembe’s
Nembe maintained that the EFCC’s intervention was directed at recovering outstanding payments owed to the joint venture and should not be portrayed as a recovery of funds from the company.
It stressed that its role in the transactions was that of a pipeline operator and service provider responsible for pursuing payments from third-party users, not a defaulting party.
“The EFCC’s intervention in respect of these transportation fees was therefore aimed at recovering money owed to the JV, not money from Nembe,” the management stated.
The company further declared that it was not indebted to the joint venture in respect of the pipeline transportation fees covered by the recovery exercise.
It said the recovered funds represented payments due for transportation services already rendered and should not be interpreted as evidence of wrongdoing or financial misconduct by Nembe.
The company also suggested that changes in EFCC leadership over the years might have contributed to misunderstandings surrounding the circumstances of the recovery and the respective responsibilities of the parties involved.
It reiterated that it had been responsible for pursuing the outstanding payments on behalf of the joint venture and welcomed the commission’s intervention in securing the funds.
Stamp Duty Issue Remains Under Reconciliation
The company also addressed the separate stamp duty issue arising from the acquisition of Oil Mining Lease 29 (OML 29) and the Nembe Creek Trunkline, saying the matter remained subject to an ongoing reconciliation process with the relevant statutory authorities.
It said it was continuing to engage the authorities to examine the applicable obligations and determine the amounts involved.
However, Nembe insisted that the stamp duty matter was entirely separate from the EFCC’s recovery of outstanding pipeline transportation fees.
The company said the two matters involved different transactions and financial obligations and should not be conflated in media reports.
It maintained that the ongoing reconciliation over stamp duty had no bearing on the recovery of transportation fees owed by third-party operators for using the pipeline.
Company Welcomes Recovery of Outstanding Revenue
Reaffirming its position, Nembe said it welcomed the recovery of the outstanding transportation revenues owed to the joint venture, noting that the exercise had facilitated the collection of payments it had previously sought through direct engagements with the affected pipeline users.
It said the recovered funds constituted revenue properly due to the joint venture for services rendered, benefiting both Nembe and its joint venture partner, NNPCL.
The management expressed confidence that subsequent reports would accurately reflect the company’s involvement in the transactions, maintaining that it provided the transportation services, pursued the outstanding payments, and benefited, alongside its joint venture partner, from their recovery.
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