WATCHING THE WORLD BEWARE OF NIGERIANS BEARING DEALS

Nigeria's planned liquefied natural gas export project is a sound scheme with lots of gas reserves available and European power generators willing to pay enough for gas to make it viable.

This is the view of John Jennings, chairman of Shell Transport & Trading Co. plc. Shell is the major foreign partner in the project. So why are negotiations bogged down again in a fourth attempt to get it going?

"The problem is within the country," Jennings said. "The Nigerian economy is in turmoil, and the government has lost its financial credibility for the time being. It will be difficult to raise finance for the project for some time. Our Nigerian partners have unrealistic aspirations."

Jennings' reference to unrealistic aspirations brings to mind the bizarre money making schemes Nigerian con men seem to fax to everyone.

BIGGER BAIT

My Oil & Gas Journal colleague in Washington outlined how some of these scams work (OGJ, July 4, 1994, p. 17). The sums promised seem to be getting larger of late. Maybe the con men think bigger baits lure bigger suckers. Take these examples:

Allegedly from Greg Fernandez, with an Oil & Mineral Producing Area Development Commission (Ompadec) letterhead: "The commission received $480 million for 1994 capital development projects. Ompadec has decided to spend $419.8 million and has placed the remaining $60.2 million in an offshore account of the Central Bank of Nigeria, awaiting remittance to any reliable overseas company/individual that would secretly keep this sum in trust for us. Thirty percent of the amount will be given to the owner of the foreign account used to claim this money. Please kindly indicate your interest by fax urgently."
Allegedly from Damian Uba of Nigerian National Petroleum Corp.: "Arrangements have been concluded on how this money ($21.5 million) would be moved. Our constraint lies in the fact that we require a foreign company or individual that can assist by making available his bank account number where this money will be paid into and help in financing the transaction."
Allegedly from Prince Charles Uzonna, area controller of the Nigeria Board of Customs & Excise, no letterhead: "What I want you to do is send an application for refund of excess duty amounting to $16.9 million to my office and enclose details of your bankers where I will pay the refund to."

MARKETING HINTS

I suspect that few Nigerian con men subscribe to OGJ. Because they seem to have found contact details from our masthead, maybe they get hold of copies occasionally. So I will address two comments to them.

First, on a point of marketing: In approaching oilmen you are addressing the wrong audience. Anyone dumb enough to fall for your crude schemes is unlikely to be shrewd enough to survive a week in this tough industry.

Second, a practical point for those who address their proposals to me: My bank account is plundered more frequently than the original fund for the LNG project. And the balance is of the same order as the Nigerian national debt.