3.3trn/- oil project suffers setback as: Dar law firm raided

Front view of Twiga House, where

the high-profile burglary took place

_____________________________

-Key documents snatched in highly-professional job -Police bamboozled by smoothness of the operation

THISDAY REPORTER Dar es Salaam.

A DAR ES SALAAM law firm has been raided by unknown people who stole various confidential files and documents regarding the planned and much-hyped, $2.6bn (approx. 3.3 trillion/-) project to build an oil refinery in Dar es Salaam and pipeline all the way to Kigoma, THISDAY can reveal today.

Police sources say the burglary on Tuesday last week, at the offices of Sheikh’s Chambers Advocates company located in the Twiga House building along Samora Avenue in the heart of the city’s central business district, appeared to have been ’’well-financed, coordinated, and executed by trained professionals.’’

The police sources told THISDAY that the perpetrators of the burglary appeared less interested in any other documents or objects of value inside the office, apart from those related to the oil refinery project being developed by a consortium of four international companies led by M/S Noor Oil and Industrial Technology Limited (NOIT) of Qatar.

Investigators said they were amazed by the apparently sophisticated and professionally-executed nature of the raid in a well-guarded building that also houses at least two leading local banks and the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange trading floor.

’This was obviously a well-conceived and high-tech plot. Whoever was behind this knew exactly what they were doing - it was definitely not the work of amateurs,’’ said one Central Police Station source.

Although it remains unclear why the burglary took place and who currently has possession of the stolen documents, police officials said yesterday a formal investigation has been launched into the criminal incident.

According to one police source: ’’One big possibility is that someone who badly needs what’s in those files and documents, hired or ordered well-trained professionals to carry out the burglary.’’

Lawyers at Sheikh’s Chambers Advocates declined to comment on the incident on what they described as professional grounds, and referred all our queries to the police.

Remarked the law firm’s managing partner Ms Hamida Sheikh: ’’I am a lawyer, and that is privileged work. So I’m afraid I cannot comment anything about this incident. Please talk to the police?they have all the details.’’

According to THISDAY’s findings, the theft was reported at the Central Police station and registered as CD/RB/10325/07 and investigation register CD/IR/3205/07.

Since it also houses the Twiga Bancorp Bank and Tanzania Investment Bank (TIB), Twiga House is regarded as one of the city’s most heavily-protected buildings, with armed policemen, grilled doors and windows, security alarms and surveillance cameras in abundance.

According to investigators, it is therefore also a mystery how the unknown burglars managed to get around all these security measures, and successfully break into and exit the law firm’s offices on the mezzanine floor of the building without being detected.

The international consortium is understood to be planning a major project to build and operate a 200,000 barrels-a-day crude oil refinery at Kigamboni area in the city, and also build and operate a 1,200-kilometre petroleum products pipeline cutting across the country from Dar es Salaam to Kigoma.

Apart from M/S Noor Oil and Industrial Technology Limited (NOIT) of Qatar as the lead investor company, other consortium partners are Stroytransgas Public Corporation and Zakneftegaz-Prometery, both of Russia, and RONEG TAG of Germany.

The formal project agreement between the consortium and the Tanzanian government was signed in Dodoma on April 20 this year, with Planning and Economic Empowerment Minister Dr Juma Ngasongwa and Permanent Secretary Charles Mutalemwa signing on behalf of the government.

According to a statement from Dr Ngasongwa at the time of the signing, the project is set to go on record as ’’the largest single investment to take place in our country since independence.’’

At one point a rival investor company, the Dar es Salaam-based Africommerce International Limited (AIL), vowed to seek legal redress over the government’s decision to give the project to the foreign consortium at what they (AIL) said was their expense.

AIL officials said that acting on the basis of an earlier government ’promise’ that they would eventually be awarded the project tender, the company had gone ahead and invested close to $3m (approx. 3.9bn/-) on feasibility studies and marketing campaigns for the same project since the 1990s.