A report by Bloomberg has revealed that the Sandesara brothers, branded as fugitives by the Indian government, are flourishing in Nigeria with their investments in the oil and gas sector.
According to the report, the selection of a firm owned by the Indian brothers has put them at the top of the ranking in Nigeria’s competitive oil and gas sector.
The brothers Nitin and Chetan Sandesara created companies poised for an increasingly prominent role — especially as international oil giants such as Shell Plc and ExxonMobil Corporation exit from Nigeria.
The siblings have built the largest independent oil company in Nigeria’s oil-rich region of Niger Delta even as India pursues them as criminals – accusing them of perpetrating “one of the largest economic scams in the country.”
The Sandesara brothers, who left India in 2017, deny cheating their lenders and say they are victims of political persecution.
Having ventured into the Nigerian oil industry almost 20 years ago when they won two onshore licenses in the Niger Delta, the brothers faced problems in India and shifted their focus to Lagos.
According to the Central Bureau of Investigation, they even applied for Nigerian citizenship.
Under agreements with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, the group’s companies, Sterling Oil Exploration & Production Co. and Sterling Global Oil Resources Ltd., pump around 50,000 barrels of crude oil per day into the Niger Delta.
According to Bloomberg, a different operation anticipates putting a third block into production this year, increasing overall daily output to more than 100,000 barrels.
The Sandesara family is Nigeria’s leading oil exporter, surpassing global giants like Shell and Chevron Corporation.
Nitin said that its firms’ taxes contributed 2 per cent of the Nigerian government’s revenue in 2019.
Indian authorities had accused them of using “false and fabricated documents” to secure bank loans and diverting funds overseas.
