Oct 24, 2016(Nyamilepedia) —— Trafigura, a Dutch multinational commodity trading company, has offered 10 millions U.S. dollar prepayment to South Sudan’s Ministry of Finance to be awarded November oil cargo and to “support the activities of the ministry”.
In a letter addressed to South Sudan’s new minister of oil, Mr. Lol Gatkuoth, and the Minister of Finance, Hon. Stephen Dhieu Dau, the scandalous trading company requested in advance to be given the November Oil deal for two main reasons.
One, Trafigura will make advance prepayment to South Sudan and two, Trafigura will be able to refund itself for past payments its made to Sudan on behalf of South Sudan.
“Trafigura will make a prepayment of USD 10 million to Ministry of Finance in order to facilitate the ward of the cargo and suppport furthermore the ministry in its activities” Reads part of a letter signed by Trafigura’s Asia Pacific CFO, Nicolas Marsac.
“As you are aware the September Cargo value has been primarily used by Trafigura to clear throughput fees due to Sudan by the Republic of South Sudan and therefore not much amortization was allowed for Trafigura. The Novemeber Cargo will therefore allow to partially compensate for that and it would be a positive point with regards to our continuos partnership and further prepayment plans in the near future to the Republic of South Sudan” Marsac continued.
About Trafigura
Trafigura was founded in 1993 and trades in base metals and energy, including oil. It is the world’s third largest private oil and metals trader after Vitol and Glencore.
Trafigura and its sisterly companies face several scandals in its operations across the world.
The Dutch company, owned by over 500 senior staffs, left up to 100,000 people with respiratory, skin and other health diseases in 2006 in Côte d’Ivoire toxic waste dump scandal.
The 2006 Côte d’Ivoire toxic waste dump caused by a Trafigura ship offloading waste in Abidjan was done in order to avoid the surcharge on dumping fees Amsterdam Port Services had imposed to discourage waste disposal there in response to local complaints about smell.
The company was also involved in the Iraq Oil-for-Food Scandal and in Norway Chemical explosion.
On 24 May 2007 an explosion occurred in Sløvåg Gulen, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway in a tank owned by Vest Tank, that had severe environmental and health consequences for people living nearby. In 2008 the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation published the 50 min documentary “Dirty Cargo” tramadol online 100mg disclosing what had happened in the small community prior to the explosion.
Public Reaction on Social Media
The Dutch trading company is deeply involved in South Sudan politics, controlling its oil accounts and helping the two rivaling Sudans benefits from their crude oil.
To many South Sudan nationals, intellectuals and observers, Trafigura’s trading in South Sudan and Sudan will have long term consequence on many people in South Sudan, particularly in Greater Upper where oil fields are found.
“Trafigura is full of scandals. This dutch trading company has done a lot of mess in Africa especially in Ivory Coast where it left over 100, 000 people with respiratory and skin diseases. South Sudan will be worst. Taking advantage of South Sudan conflict, Trigura is not taking responsibilities. All it is doing is dumping and reaping. Many South Sudanese in Greater Upper Nile will bear a huge cost from toxic waste, water pollution, land contamination and damage to biodiversity” Deng Elijah states.
According to Werilla Benjamin, if Trafigura controls South Sudan accounts and is able to settle South Sudan debts on its behalf, then South Sudan’s sovereignty is in trouble.
“September cargo value used to clear South Sudan dues to Sudan ( throughput)..in other words direct debit from South Sudans account by Trafigura to Sudan..and they also decide on amortisation cost! Sovereignty my feet!” Werilla Benjamin said.
Simon Wal Mut questions why Trafigura offers USD 10 million just to facilitate the award and to “support the activities of the ministry of finance”
“10 million USD to only facilitate the award?! Now it is obvious why our government officials in both Ministry of Petroleum and Finance would preferred to die than to live the post. This company can even do anything to secure these fishy deals with our corrupt officials.” Simon Wal Mut questions.
“It is not the official my brother it is the ministers, we were in this ministry and i can attest to you that we are suffering like there is not tomorrow , the staffs of the BoSS are way better that that of the ministry of petroleum at least they can allocate dollars to them and trade with it in the black market. The second important institution is the Nilepet which they have invested it with presidential degrees like the states position.” Domic Akwai, a former staff, response to Simon Wal on Dong Luak’s social media.
