Volcker Panel: RIL denies wrongdoing
16 Nov 2005
Mumbai: Reliance Industries has denied reports of misusing its Iraqi oil quotas granted under the UN supervised oil-for-food programme as being "based on conjectures and surmises appears to be an attempt to drag RIL's name into controversies with which it is not concerned in any way.."
In a press release to the media the company states that the complaint filed with the Enforcement Directorate, New Delhi, is based on the report of Volcker Committee, but has disputed several "facts" stated in the complaint as being "distorted" and several others as being "completely false".
RIL's denial says that the Volcker Committee Report itself states that allocations by the Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) to it did not involve payment of any surcharge to anybody.
The press release adds that only UN registered parties were able to buy Iraqi crude from Iraq and that Reliance Petroleum Limited (since then merged with RIL) had registered itself with UN for buying Iraqi crude oil, which, it says, had been confirmed by the 'oil overseers', under Security Council Resolution 986 of 1995 vide its message to the permanent mission of India to the UN on 18.11.99.
Elaborating its purchases, the company says that between April 2000 and May 2002 RIL bought 30.6-million barrels of Basrah Light crude from various trading companies on a negotiated, market competitive price based on the declared official selling prices approved by UN.
It also adds that "UN authorisation documents with complete audit" were submitted in each case to custom authorities prior to clearing the cargo as required by the prevailing regulations. "All payments made by Reliance were through normal banking channels to the account of the relevant trading parties and no other payments of any kind were involved. In each case a representation was made to Reliance that the allocation was in accordance with UN Oil for Food Resolution 986 and did not involve payment of any surcharge."
In 2002, RIL says that it received "direct allocation from SOMO. Under this allocation RIL bought 2.8mln barrels of Basrah Light Crude Oil directly from SOMO, all payments for which were made to a designated UN Escrow account through Letters of Credit and no surcharges were paid, a fact, clearly reflected in Volcker Committee report itself."
"Apart from the quantities of 33.4 M Barrel of Crude Oil mentioned above, RIL has not directly or indirectly purchased any Crude of Iraqi origin during the period in question," RIL's release adds and reiterates, " that RIL has not traded any quantities of Iraqi Crude in international market."
