(The Guardian) – ExxonMobil worked with a company connected to a senior Conservative party figure to transfer an oil asset in Liberia despite “concern over issues regarding US anti-corruption laws”, the Guardian can reveal. Documents seen by the Guardian show that ExxonMobil proposed a complex financial arrangement to move the rights to a Liberian oil block through two financial transactions on the same day, after concerns were raised about the original allocation of the rights. Under the arrangement, a company called Peppercoast sold rights in a west African oil block to a company called Canadian Overseas Petroleum Limited (COPL). The Liberian rights had originally been assigned to a company called Broadway Consolidated before transferring to Peppercoast in 2010. ExxonMobil and COPL also requested that Liberia agree that “past irregularities will not affect [the contract] or its new owners”.

Source: GNN Liberia March 29, 2018 14:03 UTC