Five Egyptian oil executives are in custody after being accused of accepting bribes from Western contractors. The officials allegedly received $340,000 under the table from the 11 different service suppliers.
Two of the oil executives head Egyptian oil ventures with Canada’s Dover Petroleum and US-based Apache Corporation and Seagull Energy Corporation, reported AFP.
Apache officials told menareport that its executives were not involved either in the giving or receiving of the bribes mentioned in this case.
According to state prosecutor Maher Abdel Wahed, the contractors made monthly payments to the five executives since 1995 in order to receive assured business and to be given immunity in case of execution delays or defaults.
Apache is the largest producer in Egypt’s Western Desert. The company reported six discoveries from its 2003 onshore drilling program. These are in addition to the recently announced Qasr- 1X discovery, which tested at a combined rate of 51.8 million cubic feet (mmcf) of gas per day. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
