Bribery: US SEC Probes 5 Oil Firms
Energy
By Chinazor Megbolu
At least five American oil companies, including majors, Chevron-Texaco, ExxonMobil holding assets in Equatorial Guinea, are being investigated by US federal regulators over possible violations of security laws prohibiting bribes to foreign government officials.
The firms, which also include Marathon, Amerada Hess and Devon Energy, are all being investigated by the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), which notified the companies about the probe by letter over the past few weeks.
The SEC's move came almost immediately after the release of a Senate Permanent Sub-committee on Investigations' report, which described transactions handled by Riggs Bank involving the companies and the dictator of Equatorial Guinea and his family.
A grand jury in Washington District is also investigating Riggs's handling of its Equatorial Guinea accounts.
The Senate inquiry is part of a series of ongoing investigations by US Congress, bank regulators and the US Justice Department into Riggs Bank and its former money-spinning embassy banking division over long-standing violations of laws designed to prevent money laundering.
The sub-committee report concluded that: "Oil companies operating in Equatorial Guinea may have contributed to corrupt practices in that country by making substantial payments to, or entering into business ventures with, individual Equatorial Guinea officials, their family members, or entities they control, with minimal public disclosure of their actions."
Marathon was notified of the SEC probe on 15 July and acknowledged the inquiry in its quarterly results.
However, it was keen to stress: "There was no finding in the sub-committee's report that Marathon violated the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act or any other applicable laws or regulations. Marathon is cooperating fully with the SEC inquiry."
Marathon became active in Equatorial Guinea in 2002 after buying the assets of US-based companies CMS Oil & Gas and Globex Energy.
A spokesman for Amerada Hess which moved into Equatorial Guinea in 2001 after acquiring Triton Energy confirmed it was also subject to the SEC probe and is "co-operating voluntarily".
"It is an informal inquiry into payments made to the government of Equatorial Guinea, officials of the government and persons affiliated with officials of the government," said the spokesman. "We're confident that we have acted responsibly and sensibly."
A ChevronTexaco spokesman also confirmed it was the subject of the inquiry: "We have received a request and we are complying with that request fully."
A spokeswoman for ExxonMobil said the supermajor "received a letter from the SEC on 5 August and we plan to co-operate fully".
Devon Energy also received a letter from the SEC late last week, said a spokesman. "Naturally, we are co-operating fully."
ExxonMobil operates the billion-barrel Zafiro field off Bioko Island while Marathon operates the Alba gas/condensate field and is a partner in onshore facilities and in the country's planned liquefied natural gas facility.
Amerada Hess operates the producing Ceiba field as well as the Northern Block G project off Rio Muni, while ChevronTexaco operates block L, which has hosted an unsuccessful exploration well so far.
Devon is a minority partner in Zafiro and has interest in exploration block P off Rio Muni.
A spokesman for Noble Energy, which is a partner in Alba and operates recently awarded exploration block O, said: "We haven't been contacted by the SEC".
Privately owned American player Vanco is also active in the West African country.
According to the Washington Post, SEC investigators will seek to determine whether the companies broke anti-bribery laws and whether they committed securities fraud by failing to properly disclose disbursements made to a foreign government or official
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