Equinor is one of several international companies that have received a huge bill from the Nigerian authorities.
Nigeria has ordered a number of oil companies to pay up to $20 billion in taxes.This is the sum the authorities believe the companies owe to local states said Reuters.
Equinor, along with Shell,Chevron,Exxon Mobil,Eni and Total,are on the list of companies that have received the written tax claims.Each company has been charged between $2.5 billion and $5 billion, equivalent to NOK 21.6 billion to NOK 43.2 billion respectively wrote E24.
Spokesman for Equinor’s international business,Erik Haaland,told the newspaper that the company rejects the claim.
‘’We won’t comment on the details,but several operators have received similar bills based on a case between the authorities in Nigeria and local authorities in parts of that country.Our assessment is that there is nothing binding in this requirement, and we make no provision in the accounts’’ Haaland told E24 news.
To Reuters, Exxon Mobil said they are now “considering the case,” while Shell,Total,Eni, Chevron, and Nigerian authorities did not want to comment.
The tax claim comes after agreements between the Nigerian government and local states last year on the distribution of revenues from the country’s oil and gas production wrote Reuters.The parties agreed that the state should pay billions of dollars to the states concerned.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
