CORRUPTION CORRUPTION CORRUPTION CORRUPTION CORRUPTION !!! ? KUALA LUMPUR — Local oil and gas shipping firm MISC Bhd was listed as one of the bribe recipients in a global scandal involving Dutch maritime engineering group SBM Offshore, according to media reports. MISC, a unit of state-owned oil giant Petroliam Nasional Berhad, was said to have received US$10 million (RM33 million) from SBM in transactions related to the Kikeh floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) development off the Sabah coast. MISC was named in a legal document allegedly leaked by a disgruntled SBM employee, according to the Dutch magazine Quote on February 6. “Payments to Barnado Limited and Delcom Limited totalling approximately US$10,000,000, paid on (ie. by way of bribes) to “MISC” for the Kikeh FPSO (leased to US oil company Murphy),” said an entry on SBM’s Wikipedia. The document was pasted anonymously on the Wikipedia page on October 19 last year and has since been removed but can still be accessed online. MISC and SBM had formed two joint-venture firms -- Malaysia Deepwater Floating Terminal Ltd and Malaysia Deepwater Production Contractors Sdn Bhd -- to own and operate the Kikeh FPSO project. The Kikeh field is in turn operated by Murphy Sabah Oil Company, on behalf of its partner Petronas Carigali Sdn Bhd. Delcom possibly refers to the old name of Deleum Bhd, which worked on Kikeh’s fluid transfer line system together with SBM in April 2007. When contacted by The Malay Mail Online, MISC denied any further knowledge of the allegations. “At this point in time, we do not have any further information on the matter other than allegations that were made in Wikipedia and media releases made by SBM Offshore pertaining to the matter on 7th and 10th February 2014,” a company official said in an emailed reply. The document pointed out that the alleged SBM scandal involved a total of US$250 million in bribes between 2005 and 2011. It also listed out SBM’s alleged malpractices in Equatorial Guinea, Angola, Brazil, Italy Kazakhstan and Iraq. Reuters reported that SBM Offshore’s share plunged 16 per cent on February 7 following the fresh allegations, its lowest in 11 months. Speaking to Reuters, SBM refused to comment further as it has already announced an investigation into the alleged payments made between 2007 and 2011. However, SBM told Quote that it was only aware of the leaked document in late January this year. “The information has been secured illegally by an angry former employee who tried to blackmail SBM. We are engaged in legal action against this person. This information is placed out of context,” an SBM spokesman told Quote. Located 120 km northwest of Labuan, Sabah, the Kikeh field has estimated oil reserves of 400 to 700 million barrels of oil. Established in November 1968, MISC’s major owners are Petronas and the Employees Provident Fund Board. - Malay Mail Full article: malaysia-chronicle/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=226081:misc-accused-of-taking-us$-10-millon-bribe-from-dutch-maritime-firm&Itemid=2#ixzz2t83Awl86 Follow us: @MsiaChronicle on Twitter
Posted on: Wed, 12 Feb 2014 17:19:08 +0000
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