Monday 15 April 2013

Vitol and Serbia's National Oil Company

I can not name my sources as they have been threatened by the Serbian Mafia with being 'disappeared' if their uncovering of Serbia's National Oil Company's ramapant corruption through out the senior management including the Minister of Oil in Serbia at the time of Vitols involvement in Serbia.

At the end of the Balkans Conflict the EU sought to help all parties get back on their feet, as part of the deal with Serbia the EU supplied petrol, deisel and fuel oil to Serbia at highly subsidised prices. To ensure it was properly used and the management could cope with the requirements of EU aid it was agreed that a team of senior management from Gazprom, Shell and BP would support Serbia's National Oil company on its commercial resumption after the dislocation caused by the conflict.

It was not long before the EU / Russian team uncovered a major scam which involved EU fuel tankers coming into Serbia  from Hungary. According to Serbia Oil the tankers were off loaded at the main redistribution base and returned to Hungary. What happened was the Serbs persuaded the tanker drivers to uncouple and take back already emptied tanks because they claimed they could not deal with the volume of fuel coming in from the EU. The tanker drivers acted in good faith and did this. The figures showed that around 60% of the EU fuel was entering the Serbian economy the rest was being written off as 'spillage'. It was not long before the EU team worked out what was happening and it was clear the re-sale of the fuel in Eastern Europe was not benefiting the Serbian economy in any shape or form, the money was being creamed of by the Serbian Mafiosa, senior executives in Serbia National Oil and ministers in the Serbian Government.

The Gazprom side said they would get their 'Russian' people to make approaches to the Serbian Government to have this blatant misuse of EU aid ended. The Shell /BP team heard no more until the Serbian Oil management member liasing with them advised they should seriously consider getting out of Serbia. It appeared that at a meeting of Serbia Oil the CEO had made it clear if the Gazprom/ Shell /BP team did not stop causing 'problems' steps would be taken by 'friends' to silence them. The CEO had been told by highly placed members of the Serbian Government that a 'blind eye' would be turned to any disappearances.

The Gazprom side took advice from the Russian Government and the end result was the Shell / BP team withdrew for their own safety. Within a year the Oil Minster had ben assasinated by who, is unknown. It may well have been a conflict of interest within the Serbian Mafia or it could have been Russia sorting out an embarassment to Gazprom's growing collaborations with Shell and BP - no one will ever know.

Yet this was the set up Vitol was working with in Serbia - and leaves the legitimacy of the 'consultancy fee' paid to the Serbian Oil Minister floating in the air, given the context of Serbia National Oil Company and the Serbian Government's modus operandi at the time.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Peter, just stumbled on your blog and will look in regularly from now. Good to see you up and running for MJMcM.

    I'm bemused but no way surprised at this legal threat and it's obvious you couldn't give a monkey's cuss about it coming your way either.

    What tickles me is that Taylor is setting about all and sundry in the fullest knowledge of what he's 'associated' with, without going so far as getting into the 'it wisnae me that dunnit! mode. But it's a one-man wrecking crew for NO.

    It's a monster can o' worms and just keeps getting bigger and bigger, though you wouldn't know it, if tuned into auntie beeb, it's probably too close to home.

    The No campaign's own Savile moment and their latest slippery banana skin. Woe, woe and mair feck*n woe!

    Loved the Rev Stu's valedictory - to the crass legalista and their mates.

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