THE Federal Government is demanding $635 million from two multinational oil companies, Agip and Total, for undeclared crude oil shipped out of the country between 2011 and 2014.
Two cases have been filed at the Federal High court in Lagos by senior lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Professor Fabian Ajogwu, who had handled several cases for the Federal Government on aviation, defence, energy, and financial services.
Hearing will begin next week before Justice Olatoregun Isola.
There are indications that Ajogwu will also be filing claims against other multinationals, such as Chevron and Exxon-Mobil
The government in the two cases is claiming $490,517,280 from Total E & P Nigeria Limited and $145,848,102 from Nigeria Agip Oil Company Limited.
The statements of claim filed before the court are accompanied by the sworn affidavits of three US based professionals.
The government contendeds that sometime in 2014, it realised a decline in its oil export revenue, adding that this necessitated an intelligent gathering of data, which showed that part of the reasons for the decline was the under-declaration of crude oil shipments made by some major oil and gas companies operating in the country.