Nembe Exploration and Production Company Limited has declared that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) recovered outstanding pipeline transportation fees owed to its joint venture with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) — and that none of the money came from Nembe itself.

The clarification follows media reports that named Nembe, formerly Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Production Company Limited, alongside Newcross Exploration and Production Limited, in connection with the EFCC's recovery of unpaid fees for use of the Nembe Creek Trunkline (NCTL). Nembe said those reports created a misleading impression: that the company was among the firms from which the commission recovered funds.

Who actually owed the money?

According to the company, it operates the Nembe Creek Trunkline on behalf of its joint venture with NNPCL and provides crude oil transportation services to third-party operators, including Newcross Exploration and Production Limited. The outstanding fees arose from those operators' use of the pipeline.

Nembe, as operator, carried responsibility for pursuing the payments on behalf of the JV. It spent months doing so through formal demands, correspondence and direct engagements with the affected parties before the EFCC stepped in. The commission's statutory investigative and recovery powers, the company said, helped secure the funds it had long been chasing.

What does the recovery change?

For practitioners reading the story, the key point is the direction of the money. The recovered sums represent payment for pipeline transportation services owed to the joint venture by oil firms that used the facility — not funds taken from Nembe. The company stressed it was the operator pursuing the outstanding payments, not the defaulting party.

Nembe framed the recovery as the settlement of outstanding service fees rather than evidence of wrongdoing or financial misconduct by the company. It also suggested that changes in the EFCC's leadership may have contributed to the confusion surrounding the episode, and insisted it holds no debt to the JV in respect of the pipeline transportation fees.

The company welcomed the recovery, describing it as revenue legitimately due to the joint venture.

Why were the fees unpaid in the first place?

Nembe pointed to the operating environment. Crude oil theft, pipeline vandalism, insecurity and operational disruptions — particularly since the COVID-19 period — affected pipeline operations, transportation volumes and the reconciliation of payments. In other words, the arrears accumulated during years when the trunkline's throughput and accounting were repeatedly disrupted, complicating the matching of volumes to invoices.

A separate stamp duty matter

On a distinct issue, Nembe said stamp duty arising from the acquisition of Oil Mining Lease (OML) 29 and the Nembe Creek Trunkline remains under reconciliation with the relevant statutory authorities. The company emphasised that this stamp duty question is entirely separate from the pipeline transportation fees the EFCC recovered.

The bottom line for the market: the EFCC intervention closed out receivables owed to the Nembe-NNPCL joint venture, and the operator at the centre of the headlines was the creditor in the transaction, not the debtor.