The similar logo and name are explained through an agreement between the two firms that gave ZR Energy DMCC the right to use the brand and credit facility of ZR Group Holding SAL. Reporting by Marianna Parraga in Mexico City; Additional reporting by Luc Cohen in Caracas, Nidhi Verma in New Delhi, Julia Payne in London; Editing by Daniel Flynn, Simon Webb,David Gaffen and Marguerita Choy. This article was originally published in French. After the report was published, Reliance did not respond to further questions from Reuters about why the PDVSA internal document proposed Reliance pay Rosneft a marketing fee related to the supply of crude under the Indian firms long-term supply contract with PDVSA. Could Oil and Gas Inspire Change in Lebanon. The Russian oil scheme appears to have been affected by the agreement between Cuba and Venezuela to exchange oil for medical services, and BB Naft expanded its work in Cuba in 2007 to include the sale of spare parts and batteries for autos and trucks, work boots, farm machinery, hardware for USD 5.3 million.. BB Energy Location 12-14 Ansdell St, London, Essex, W8 5BN, United Kingdom Description Read More Industry Oil accounts for more than 90 percent of exports from the OPEC nation and the lions share of government revenues. Fuel poverty and energy efficiency are inevitably linked, the less efficient a property is the costlier it is to heat. This is ostensibly because it was hard for the judiciary to find evidence linking ZR Energy DDMC and ZR Group Holding SAL, despite the testimonies collected by Mansour. Security agencies have warned against gangs attempting to kidnap unaccompanied children. One of the directors of both Curtdale and Ardpoint starting in 2011 was Hernn Aguilar Parra, executive director of Grupo Empresarial de Tabaco de Cuba, known as TABACUBA, the governments tobacco monopoly. Many of the Mossack Fonseca emails and documents show the relationship between BB Naft and the BB Energy group through the years. BB Energy has trading hubs in the UAE, the U.K., the US, and Singapore. This was in addition to his 49,140 directors salary. Testimonies collected by Mount Lebanon Investigative Judge Nicolas Mansour as part of the preliminary investigation pointed to suspected shady deals to forge lab tests for the fuels quality specifications, and to the involvement of employees at the labs as well as senior officials at the Energy Ministry, including the director-general of oil installations, Sarkis Hleiss. If youre rich and want a place of power in politics, donate 3 million to the Conservative Party and youre likely to gain a peerage. The governments own Climate Change Committee warned in March that there is little, if any, room for increased fossil gas consumption if the goals of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement are to be met. Tell Grant Shapps to stop giving away Emissions Trading Scheme permits, Former energy minister John Hayes, who has likened climate protesters to Radical Islam, has received a 50,000 salary from BB Energy since 2018. It is also worth noting that Abdelmoumen Ould Kaddour used to be the manager of a Sonatrach branch at the beginning of the millennium before he was imprisoned on account of leaking information classified as military secrets. A former Conservative minister who has criticised climate change policies and joined calls to restart fracking has been paid 150,000 by an oil firm, openDemocracy can reveal. The upgrade of the Number 10 flat is now expected to be the subject of another inquiry. It is noteworthy that Mr. Fawal is not authorized to sign the companys contracts, and he assured the Lebanese judiciary that he is merely a representative of Sonatrach in the negotiation processes, and not in concluding contracts. Hes right, but the cruelty is the treatment of ordinary people and the contempt politicians have for the rest of us. This was on top of his standard MP salary of nearly 82,000. Still, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which enforces sanctions, has given no indications it would take that route. In response to Reuters story, Rosneft has denied it has acted as an intermediary for payments to PDVSA. Such deals, however, may be authorized by the Treasury Departments Office of Foreign Assets Control or the Commerce Departments Bureau of Industry and Security. BB Naft shareholder Wael Bassatne told El Nuevo Herald that his company did not violate the U.S. embargo because it is not registered and does no business in the United States. Last month he and other Tory MPs called for fracking to resume. And the cosy dinners, the freebie trips and holidays, the football match tickets and the fat extra salaries to deliver for corporations must all go. Word in the news: black rain Children love it, businesses hate it Pody Lui from BBC Hong Kong explains the rain warning system, and why black rain warnings are taken so seriously. The response of Sonatrachs representative in Lebanon, Tarek Fawal, was quick, as he declared the companys willingness to cooperate with the Ministry of Energy to resolve the issues related to what he called the lack of conformity of the last shipment of fuel to the specifications, noting that this shipmentestimated at 38,000 tonswas examined by three different international offices who confirmed that it in fact met the specifications stipulated in the contract. Shuja Malik of BBC Urdu visited a village where women have been hired to work in the milk centre. Fresh scrutiny has been applied after it was revealed former Attorney General Sir Geoffrey Cox was being paid hundreds of thousands of pounds advising the British Virgin Islands' government in a corruption investigation. A letter sent in 1998 by a Mossack Fonseca employee to the international trade office at state-run Petroecuador referred to documents sent by BB Naft required to register the company. A 2005 fax also points to an initial contact with the Venezuelan governments Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA). Thats the case of Racuza S.A., incorporated in the British Virgin Islands. Successive . Patersons lobbying interests extended to sausage company Lynns Country Foods who paid him 12,000 for just 24 hours of work each year. At the time of renewal of the contracts related to supplying the Lebanese market in December 2018, ZR Energy, owned by Teddy and Rimon Rahma, took a share of it for 3.75 USD/metric ton for Sonatrach, the thing which Tarek Fawal insisted on denying in his interview to the Lebanese newspaper al-Akhbar. By Irina Slav - Sep 20, 2021, 9:30 AM CDT. Starting in the early 1990s, Cubas Ministry of Foreign Trade, through the Compaa Panamericana S.A, used Mossack Fonseca to create a string of disguised companies in Panama, the Bahamas and the British Virgin Islands that bought and sold medicines, cigars and food. By signing up, you agree to our Terms and conditions and privacy policy. Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg. The justification of the Sonatrach executives for adopting this type of contract (Fronting), which is renewed every three years, was the position of the intermediary in the Lebanese market, in addition to his taking all the risks related to the deals. They include Petrobras, Vitol, and Glencore Limited. Hayes, who was once described as the champion of the motorist during his time as a transport minister, also recently contributed to a report critical of the government's net-zero policies. The proposed payment mechanism is the latest sign of the growing proximity of Venezuelas cash-strapped government to Russia as the United States tightens a financial noose around Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who it describes as a dictator. Erni was most recently. RECOMMENDATIONS 2.1. Rahmeh, like the other defendants, presented preemptory defenses during the pretrial phase, which the judiciary accepted, except related to the charge of bribery, which it upheld. The Venezuelan companys shipping schedules showed that Reliance was loading a cargo from PDVSA as recently as April 20. This evolutionary approach not only applies to our services, but also our people. The procedures may take a long time, particularly because the number of defendants is high. The news website Diario de Cuba has identified the director of foreign investments at the Foreign Trade Ministry, Dborah Rivas Saavedra, as another of the directors of Racuza, Miramar Investment Corporation Ltd and Caribbean Sugar Trader. Landlords are eligible for up 5,000 to cover two thirds of energy efficiency work. Image: Cables of the electric generators in the Lebanese capital BeirutCredit: ANWAR AMRO/AFP via Getty Images, except East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa. Its stated aims are to challenge what it describes as the extremely damaging and harmful policies designed to mitigate climate change. I understand Mr. Dupont-Willemin is a Swiss lawyer and I believe it is for the documents to be more transparent and trustworthy. Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand. The PDVSA source said the agreement had received the consent of all three parties and was being executed. He receives a salary of 25,000 a year. The report claims peerages appeared to be a reward to thank wealthy donors for funding the Tory party. Regardless of whether payments flowed directly to PDVSA or remained in Russia to pay down debt, the proposed approach appears to present no violation of sanctions by any of the entities because no U.S. citizens, currency, companies or financial institutions seem to be involved, according to four sanctions experts consulted by Reuters. Miqati Says Cyprus Still Waiting for Lebanon's Ratification of Maritime Border Agreement. Socialist Worker (unless otherwise stated). The Cuban Embassy in Washington did not answer a comment request for this story. Russia has publicly said the U.S. sanctions are illegal and it would work with Venezuela to weather them. Peter Quinter, an expert on U.S. embargo laws and former head of the International Law section of the Florida Bar Association, said the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba generally bars a company with a U.S. presence from doing business with Cuba directly or indirectly through an offshore branch, for example. Sonatrach signed the contract while Ali ibn-Buzeid was the manager of the London branch, and Muhammad Shawki Rahhal was the marketing manager, who had been accused in the first Sonatrach lawsuit. Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnsons former senior adviser, says that the attempt to discredit the system that found then MP Owen Paterson guilty was really about the PM and his own lies. BBE has consolidated experience in trading, operations, chartering, logistics, storage, refining, and financing, trading in excess of 40 million metric tonnes (MT) of crude oil, petroleum product, and gas in 2021. The Lebanese National News Agency announced that the attorney-general of Mount Lebanon, Ghada Aoun, issued arrest warrants against 17 people working in the fuel sector because of import irregularities. These trading experts are supported by a highly skilled team of operations, shipping and financepersonnel concentrated in Athens. Add your voice to our engaged subscriber community and be part of the change. The offer letter, seen by Reuters with its date redacted, said that Rosneft had agreed with PDVSA to pay BB Energys $26 million debt to the Venezuelan state oil company and then to seek payment from BB Energy via a bank transfer or an equivalent oil cargo. Employees are required to act honestly and ethically when dealing with business counterparts. The Bassatne family incorporated BB Naft Trading S.A. in Panama, with Jrgen Mossack as a director. The Lebanease newspaper, Al-Akhbar, published a tweet by the Former Energy Minister, Nada Boustani, in which she spoke of ministerial reports confirming the poor quality of fuel and demanding to go on with punitive measures against the suppliers. So the seller had to be told that payment would be in euros from a bank in Spain, for example, and Cuba lost on the currency exchange.. It is assumed that companies will have more trust in documents certified in Switzerland than in Cuba.. Subscribe or upgrade your current MEED.com package to support your strategic planning with the MENA region's best source of business information. You can unsubscribe at any time*. BB Energy is not known to be involved in fracking but says that it sells oil around the world and is one of the largest traders in the Mediterranean. ZR Group Holding SAL and ZR Energy DMCC are two separate corporate entities. The Committee on Standards suggested Paterson should just be suspended from the Commons for 30 days. Tory MP Owen Paterson announced his resignation last week following revelations of his shameless lobbying for big businesses. Hayes recently opposed a plan to bring forward a ban on selling new petrol and diesel cars. But the stench of corruption was too much. BB Energy is part of the Electricity, Oil & Gas industry, and located in United Kingdom. The Panama Papers, documents leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and shared with the McClatchy Washington Bureau, Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald, among others, contain hundreds of thousands of pages from the files of Mossack Fonseca, a Panama law firm with offices in 33 other countries. 2022 LOrient-Le Jour. The report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Fair Fuel for UK Motorists and UK Hauliers decries the environmental evangelism and virtue signalling of the governments plan to phase out new petrol and diesel engines by 2030. Companies with Cuban capital or activities on the island. Our experienced traders are situated in our offices throughout the globe; industry specialists who count gas, crude oil, light and middle distillates, as well as bitumen, as their specialities. MP and former Tory energy minister John Hayes has been paid 150,000 by oil firm BB Energy over three years. Hayes declared his role at the oil traders, and there is no evidence that rules have been broken. Public documents show for example that Vitol and Glencore have used intermediaries to funnel over US$31 million in bribes to corrupt Petrobras employees in the past so that they may win big contracts, along with acquiring other benefits. Reliance said in its statement its purchases of Venezuelan oil from Rosneft do not lead to any payments to PDVSA. MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - (This April 18 story corrects to make clear Reuters could not determine payments were made under the proposed arrangement, removes reference to Evrofinance Mosnarbank and clarifies that experts see no violation of sanctions). The Panama Papers show Dupont-Willemin as a director of a total of 49 offshore companies in the British Virgin Islands, five in Panama and two each in the Bahamas and Seychelles islands. ZR Energy DMCC was not aware of any deficiency and relied on the representations of independent and internationally recognised third-party testers who certified that it was on specification when ZR Energy DMCC handled the cargo, a representative of ZR Energy DMCC said. All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. Following the publication of Reuters report on Thursday, Reliance said in its statement that it had purchased Venezuelan crude oil from Rosneft long before the imposition of U.S. sanctions on PDVSA in January, as the Russian company received oil in return for a reduction in Venezuelas debt. The analysis and opinions they express through LOGI are their own and do not reflect the view of their respective employers. The Swiss lawyer did not respond to El Nuevo Herald requests for comments on this story. Venezuelas oil ministry, its information ministry - which handles media for the government - and PDVSA did not respond to questions. State-run Bangladesh Petroleum Corp., or BPC, has awarded the building contract to a consortium of Japan's Marubeni Corp., Vitol Asia Pte. Tory whips threatened MPs with the loss of local funding unless they fell into line. Tory MP Bill Wiggin gained 25,000 in bonuses and fees from a tax dodging wealth management firm in Bermuda. The legal proceeding is not expected to be decided before next year. In particular, the expensive refurbishment of the Downing Street flat. We encourage anyone to comment, please consult, 43 Lords have financial interests in fossil fuel industry, How the UK helps the worlds kleptocrats and crooks deliberately, In the fight for racial justice, optimism is not enough, Staff and students in universities across the UK deserve better, The disturbing resurgence of antisemitic conspiracy theories, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence. Yahya Mawloud, the operations manager of Middle East Power, the company operating the reciprocating engines installed in Zouk and Jiyyeh where the tainted fuel was destined for, had sounded the alarm about the poor quality of fuel in March 2020. Corruption in the Energy Sector Corruption has been defined by Robert Klitgaard3 as "the abuse of office for personal gain". Founded in Lebanon, BB Energy is one of the worlds leading independent energy trading companies, trading more than 33 million metric tonnes of oil every year. The long list of companies linked to the Cuban government or active in Cuba also includes Sanford Management Financial Ltd.; Commercial Mercadu S.A. (linked to Panamericana); Amadis Compaa Naviera S.A.; Seagull and Seafoods, S.A.; Mavis Group S.A.; Octagon Industria Ltd; Travelnet; and Venus Associates Inc., among others. Campuses would have to give up testing resources and send them to Randox, they continued. Four high-level suspects, including Hleiss, and Teddy Rahme and Ibrahim al-Zouk of ZR Energy, did not respond to court summons and arrest warrants were issued for them. Baha Bassatne remained the sole Sonatrach broker until Abdelmoumen Ould Kaddour was appointed general manager of the company and imposed another intermediary. Listed as a director of one of the companies is a brother of Gen. Luis Alberto Rodrguez Lpez-Calleja husband of Cuban ruler Raul Castros daughter and powerful head of the Cuban armed forces business conglomerate, GAESA. The findings of another inquiry by the Electoral Commission was handed to the Tories just before the government attempted to smash up the existing standards regime. This is an actual Pandoras box that goes far beyond the chapter currently in the hands of the judiciary, he said. The contract may be summarized as follows: Sonatrach will give its name to the shipments of Baha Bassatne, who buys fuel from the Swiss company Vitol, for 3.5 dollars per metric ton, while he makes 25 dollars as profit in his deals with the end customer in Lebanon. In an effort to save him even this punishment, Johnson instructed Tory MP Andrea Leadsom to put forward an amendment and set up a committee to prevent his suspension. Billions of dollars have been siphoned off annually into political largesse and party war chests. Ltd., in February of this year to import 2,880,000 barrels of diesel fuel. Reports obtained by LOGI show that tests of one batch of fuel showed it could contain chemical waste. The quality of the fuel was so bad that it caused material damage to turbines at both the Jiyeh and Zouk power plants. Under the new approach described to Reuters, Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA has at least twice asked its clients to make payments to Rosneft for Venezuelan oil, according to the documents. Since 2018, John Hayes, who served as an energy minister in David Camerons government, has worked for BB Energy as a strategic adviser. Swiss lawyer Albert-Louis Dupont-Willemin appears as a director of several of the Cuban companies, among them Miramar Investment Corporation Ltd. and Pescatlan S.A. The methods have frustrated Washington officials, who have in recent days questioned why sanctions have not had a more dramatic impact on Venezuelas finances. BB Energy ("BBE or the Group") was established by the Bassatne Family who started a commodities business in Lebanon in 1937, trading grain and asphalt. Read about our approach to external linking. This was on top of his standard MP salary of nearly 82,000. Since the Tories takeover of parliament in 2010, nine of the partys former treasurerswho donated huge amountswere given a position as a Lord. Ltd., BB Energy (Gulf) DMCC and BB Holding S.A.L. The company did not respond to a request for comment. The documents reveal previously unknown details about the Cuban governments economic maneuvers abroad and the foreign companies that do business with Havana as some of the firms tried to hide Cubas hand in business deals to skirt the U.S. embargo. Sonatrach has been involved in at least two major corruption cases in the past decade, both of which involved the payment of bribes to company employees and officials. If you have any queries about republishing please contact us. Procs du fuel dfectueux : 22 personnes sur le banc des accuss. This article was published in LOGI's May 2020 newsletter in partnership with Kulluna Irada. A scandal over the import of sub-standard quality fuel into Lebanon has seen some two-dozen people arrested, two fuel tankers seized and the offices of two major fuel traders raided and sealed off amid ongoing investigations. It is up to the criminal court to render a decision on the merits of the case. The Cuban military is estimated to control at least 60 percent of the islands economy. We hope to welcome you among our subscribers. The development has had mixed reactions. He failed on a number of occasions to declare those interests. Tainted fuel scandal: 22 people and entities to stand trial. Lebanese judicial sources told Daraj that the investigation will not be limited to the technical specifications of fuel, but will also include the commissions Sonatrach is making. The company opened an office in Cuba, he explained, because he has been a resident of Havana like his wife and three children, all of them born in Cuba and Cuban citizens. Potential forms of corruption include bribery, theft, collusion and bid-rigging. With challenges consistently facing the energy industry, we are constantly evolving, using advanced systems, procedures and processes to provide the best answers for our clients. The practice has been banned since 2019, after a scientific report found it was not possible to accurately predict the probability of earthquakes linked to drilling. However, the criminal court announced his innocence to the Algeria Judicial Council, which was concerned with the ongoing investigations in the second Sonatrach case. Forgery, using counterfeit documents, bribery, fraud and professional misconduct these are the charges brought against 22 people and entities following a pretrial investigation into a case of. The subsidiary subcontracted the deal to two private companies BB Energy, owned by the Bassatne family, and, beginning in 2017, Dubai-based ZR Energy DMCC, owned by Ibrahim Zaouk. They include BB Energy Trading Ltd., BB Energy Management S.A., BB Energy Holdings NV., BB Energy B.V., BB Energy (Asia) Pte. Their combined donation amounts to a total of 54 million. All individuals involved in this initiative - including co-founders, advisory board members, and experts - are serving in their personal capacity. In his self-pitying resignation letter he blamed the cruel world of politics. Those sanctioned include the oil trading firms Swissoil Trading and Malta-based Elemento Ltd., as well as Swissoil owner Philipp Paul Vartan Apikian, Spanish-Venezuelan citizen Francisco Javier D'Agostino Casado, and core facilitator and Italian citizen Alessandro Bazzoni. Beefing up global enforcement around corruption There is no overlap of ownership or management between the two companies, a representative of ZR Energy DMCC told Le Commerce du Levant. We made a separate appeal to examine the contract with Sonatrach, but it was rejected. Last month, he also joined calls from Tory MPs to allow shale fracking to resume in the UK. This was set to be voted on in parliament. All rights reserved. Copyright 2023 BB Energy. Zaouk is connected to Rahmeh, however, through another company, ZR Energy SAL Offshore, of which Rahmeh is a majority stakeholder and which, along with Zaouk, has a share in ownership of the Lebanese firm Domaz Holding. It showed that fuel was of acceptable quality, when another test showed it was not. For over five decades we have been applying our depth of specialist experience to oil refining, logistics, storage and financing across the world. Formed in the 1960s, the group's activities span six continents. The women pushing boundaries in Pakistans rural milk marketIn rural Pakistan women milk cows, but male relatives take the milk to male-run collection centres. The London branch of the Algerian Sonatrach published a statement through the Algerian News Agency, saying that whoever was presented by the media as an employee of Sonatrach is not, in fact, an employee in the company, but an independent marine agent who monitors shipments in Lebanon for the benefit of the companys branch in London. The Algerian company tried to imply that the issue is limited to the technical specifications of the fuel.
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