Sunday, January 10, 2021

Ethiopia "is set to rescind an agreement with a US-based self-described energy firm after an investigation...revealed the company had no petroleum industry expertise or technical credentials"

Quartz:

a Virginia-based firm run by an Ethiopian-American former car dealership employee...was poised to oversee the construction of a $3.6 billion oil refinery in Ethiopia’s Somali region, after entering into an agreement with the Ethiopian government on April 28.

...

But the investigation revealed the company had made misleading statements about its capabilities and its connections as part of an elaborate scheme. It portrayed itself as an industry leader despite having never completed an oil-related project anywhere, and despite the company being delisted from the Virginia state corporate database when it signed the deal on April 28.

After Quartz Africa’s story was published one local social media user drove to the company’s listed address in Virginia, and found empty office space, with no sign of an extraction company in the area.