“The Wall Street Journal” Stop Smear Campaign - CEO

Accra, Nov. 5, GNA –The smear campaign of calumny embarked upon by “The Wall Street Journal” against Saltpond Offshore Producing Company Limited (SOPCL) is a needless wild goose chase because the Company is engaged in legitimate business.

The subsequent publication in the October 15, 2014 edition of “The Finder” newspaper that: “Diplomatic relations between Ghana and Nigeria is said to be under threat following the failure of Ghana to officially order investigations into the activities of Saltpond Offshore Producing Company (SOPC), which has been accused of laundering stolen Nigerian crude to Europe” is the latest stanza of the old song of calumny in the media against an honest corporate citizen of Ghana, Mr Quincy Sintim-Aboagye, Chief Executive Officer of SOPCL, told the GNA in an interview.

He said Ghanaian Officials have no reason to order special investigations into the activities of the Company because they knew exactly what was happening.”They supervise our operations regularly”, he emphasized.

When GNA asked him to explain why SOPCL according to Government figures produced 100,000 barrels of crude oil in 2013, but had exported about 470,000 barrels between August 2013 and April 2014, Mr Sintim-Aboagye laughed and said it was a trade secret.

However, he said because Benoit Faucon and Drew Hinshaw of WSJ wanted to gain recognition as investigative journalists with their speculative reports on SOPCL, he was going to let the cat out of the bag.

The CEO said SOPCL produced 100,000 barrels from its wells at Saltpond. The crude has 36 API (measure of density), which is higher than the 31 API it requires to qualify for light crude.

The Company then buys Low Pour Fuel Oil (LPFO) from legitimate suppliers, which has less than 31 API, and, therefore, cheaper and mixes them together to bring it to 31 API to make it Saltpond Blend, which it sells to oil traders and not refineries.

He said “Saltpond Blend” was different from “Saltpond Crude”, adding that “Saltpond Crude” was what was taken from the wells at Saltpond while the “Saltpond Blend” was the mixture of the crude with LPFO bought from legitimate suppliers.

He explained: “It is like going to the supermarket to buy concentrated orange juice and when you go home you mix it with water before drinking it.”

He emphasized that the 100,000 barrels quoted by WSJ represented the amount of crude drawn from the wells at Saltpond, and said; “we have fulfilled all the statutory requirements and are ready to open our books for verification”.

The August 22, 2014 edition of WSJ carried a story, “Tiny Ghana Oil Platform’s Big Output Sparks Scrutiny” in which it made unsubstantiated allegations against SOPCL that “some US and Nigerian officials suspect Saltpond is one of the several destinations that smugglers use to transship stolen Nigerian crude, effectively laundering it by making it appear to come from a legitimate source outside of Nigeria”.

The Authors, Benoit Faucon and Drew Hinshaw used subterfuge to glean information from Mr Emmanuel Oware, General Manager of Petro-Marine Consult, based in Tema, and claimed that he had told them that “small vessels that have loaded ‘unofficial’ oil in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta frequently come to discharge at Saltpond”. Mr Oware has since sworn to an affidavit to deny that he made such a statement.

The Authors also alleged that even tough official Ghana Government figures indicated that SOPCL produced 100,000 barrels of crude in 2013, “but since last August, three tankers picked up more 470,000 barrels from Saltpond.

GNA