Civil Society Legtiv Advc Centre (CISLAC Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) is non-governmental, non-profit legislative advocacy, information sharing and research organization that works around policy/legislative advocacy, civil society capacity building and media engagement.

CISLAC as an organization upholds Integrity, Transparency and Accountability, Team Work, Partnership and Value for money as our core values and this has propelled us to the position where we have good working relationships with institutions like Corporate Affairs Commission(CAC) who incorporated us as a body (CAC/IT/NO22738), the Economic and Financial crimes Commission where we have a compliant statuswith the Anti-Money Laundering Act 2007, The Organisation reports to Special Control Unit for Money Laundering (SCUML) any transaction that is above One thousand dollars, detailing the payee, purpose and the other KYC (Know Your Customer) requirements.  This is done on a monthly basis depending on the volume of transactions and to ensure appropriate compliance with anti-money laundering laws.CISLAC is also registered organisation under the National Planning Commission. In recognition of its broad perspective, CISLAC was granted an ECOSOC status by the United Nations in 2011 giving it the mandate and the instrumentality of the United Nations and is the national contact of Transparency International (TI).

CISLAC through her engagement in governance processes in Nigeria has contributed towards the passage of several primary legislation such as the FiscalResponsibility Act, Violence against Persons Prohibition Act, National Tobacco Control Act, National Health Act, Public Procurement Act, and Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative Act, Freedom of Information Act. CISLAC is among the movementadvocating for the passage of such pieces of legislation as Disability Bill, Gender and Equal Opportunity Bill, Whistle-blower Protection Bill, Prison Reform Bill. In collaboration with other CSOs, the organization continues to monitor implementation of these Acts/laws, hence instilling a culture of transparency and accountabilityin different sectors.

CISLAC#s research and policy briefs have been instrumental in providing a wealth of knowledge on the governance process in Nigeria, with the most recent of such work including the report #Weaponizing Transparency#  a report that uncovered the corrupt practices in the defence sector especially within the sphere of fighting insurgency in Nigeria; and the Nigerian Natural Resource Charter Benchmarking Exercise report 2017  which we were a co-researcher but specifically researched on the precept 3 and 4which deals with licensing and taxation issues in the oil and gas sector in Nigeria. Our persistent engagement in the oil and gas sector merited us to be nominated as the civil society representative in the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) board. In recent years, CISLAC has expanded its work to regional levels engaging ECOWAS and the AU organs, which has enabled her influence andopportunity to share best practices and experiences at regional and continental levels. To this purpose, CISLAC has established permanent presence in the USA with an independent legal entity.

As a renowned CSO in Legislative and policy advocacy intheregion, CISLAC has on several occasions shared its experience on best practices for legislative advocacy on invitation from its international partners such as the World Bank Parliamentary Forum and the United Nations Millennium Campaign/Sustainable DevelopmentGoals in African countries such as Kenya and Zimbabwe. Similarly, Ghana, Kenya, and Democratic Republic of Congo have also requested support from CISLAC for replication of its work in Legislative advocacy. In many West African countries such as Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Cameroon, Niger, Togo and Benin Republic, CISLAC has carried out experience sharing and advocacy exercises on the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative processes through supporting the passage of extractive industry initiativelaws in these countries. CISLAC also undertakes capacity building for legislators, CSOs and Media on policy engagements in the above countries.
We have also engaged in policy and legislative researches on governance issues in Nigeria.  CISLAC is strong at knowledge generation and sharing. Since inception, the organization has conducted series of Regional and National level researches and developed knowledge materials from the findings, which have been published and disseminated throughout the nationand beyond.

CISLAC, SOMO and Oxfam Novib will conduct and design a research, develop and implement an influencing strategy targeting commodity traders, home and host states ofcommodity traders and investors of commodity traders. In order to maximize impact, the program will be linked to existing Oxfam Novib campaigns, such as the tax justice campaign and the fair finance guide. It will also be hinged on the ongoing Even It Up campaignwhich is a broad based global intervention.

The research will be based on a case study of Vitol Oil and Gas marketing firm operation in Nigeria and will focus but not restricted on the following;
Vitol#s operations in Nigeria
Nigeria is probably the most important country of operation of Vitol in Sub-Sahara Africa,even though they are not well known to the Nigerian public. Vitol#s main interest in Nigeria is oil and gas, both as a trader and as a seller to end consumers. The company operates in Nigeria mainly behind the scenes. Vitol has the following activities in Nigeria:

Oil trade:
Vitol is shareholder of Hyson, a joint venture company with Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the Nigerian oil corporation, to market Nigeria#s excess petroleum products in the West and Central African sub regions, and toimport various petroleum products, in collaboration with its sister company Calson Bermuda Ltd.  This includes the supply of crude oil to the refineries in Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Senegal. In 2011, total crude oil exports by Hyson amountedto 30 million barrels of oil (sales value of US$ 3.3 billion), which accounted for 13.4% of the total export value from Nigeria.  Vitol is the second largest Swiss oil trader in Nigeria, after Trafigura, and possibly the second largest oil trader in general.  In recent times, due to impediments in the business environment, Hyson has diversified into the LPG sector.  Calson is 49% owned by Vitol and was created to supply logistical and operational services to Hyson.

According to a list published by theNNPC, in 2016 crude oil term contracts were issued to 21 companies, including international refineries, trading houses and local downstream firms.  The list mentions that Vitol obtained contracts for a total of 64,000 bpd (32,000 directly through Vitol SA and 32,000 indirectly through Calson/Hyson).

Oil refinery and storage
Vitol is also actively engaged in several tenders by the Nigerian government for developing new oil refineries as the country tries to boost output of refined oil products and limit its dependence on imports. The petroleum storage capacity of Vitol (through Oando Plc, Nigeria#s second largest downstream fuel company, in which Vitol acquired a majority share in 2015) is 84,000 m3.

Gasoline sales
Vitol is involved in the sales of gasolineto Nigerian consumers. In 2015, Vitol acquired a majority share in Nigeria#s second largest downstream fuel company, Oando Plc, which owns more than 400 service stations in Nigeria, 84,000 metric tons of storage and liquefied petroleum gas operations.Themarket share of Vitol/Oando in Nigeria is estimated at 12%.

LPG/domestic gas storage and sales
Through Vitti, the company owns the Navgas terminal in Lagos. Navgas is a newly-built LPG facility which opened in 2010. Working with an established local partner, Nidogas, VTTI built two LPG spheres to serve the huge and growing Nigerian population with domestic gas.

Other activities
Vitol also owns a company involved in trade ofmotor vehicle parts and accessories in Nigeria, Mansel Commercial Services Ltd.

Controversies in Nigeria involving Vitol
Over the years, Vitol has been implicated in two major controversies: in a subsidy fraud and in a scandal around oil trade mispricing:

Oil trade mispricing by Vitol subsidiaries Hyson and Calson:
In 2008, Calson, in which Vitol has a 49% share, generated a turnover of more than 5 billion dollars. The joint venture was then classified as one of the #most significant# participating investments of the Vitol group.  In 2010, a controversy broke out in Nigeria around the way in which Calson was acquiring its crude oil: on 24 March 2010, the Nigerian press published a letter from Calson to Vitol in which the company indicated that, starting in the month of May of the same year, the oil should be sold at #competitive prices#, that is, at market prices. The letter suggested that until then, Vitol had been obtaining oil at knock-down prices. Although Vitol denied the allegations, the case has never been fully clarified. In the view of experts there is no doubt that at least part of the sales from the NNPC to its joint ventures are made at prices lower than the market rates.

Subsidy fraud:
Since 2013, an investigation has been ongoing regarding the biggest subsidy fraud case in African history,and there are indications of Vitol#s involvement.  Despite being the thirteenth largest producer worldwide, the structural failings of its refineries oblige the country to import 80 % of its needs for refined products, from petrol to kerosene and includingfuel oil. Toease the social tensions within the population and prevent opposition to its oil policy, the Nigerian government instituted a mechanism for providing subsidies on the import of petroleum products. These subsidies were designed to offer Nigerians petrolatbargain rates. However, several Nigerian audits have shown that this subsidy scheme was the object of, in the words of the Berne Declaration, #one of the most massive embezzlements of public funds that the African continent has ever experienced. In total, 6.8 billion dollars of these subsidies were paid out between 2009 and 2011 without proper justification#.  According to Swiss NGO the Berne Declaration, which did extensive research on the subsidy fraud,

In order to carry out these fraudulent practices, the importers had to free themselves from inspection by the authorities. This is why most of the transactions took place abroad, contrary to the system foreseen by the Nigerian authorities, which stipulated that international traders had to supply theNigerian importers in the territorial waters of Nigeria or in the country#s ports, particularly Port Harcourt or Apapa (Lagos). [#] The tankers, that were chartered by Vitol and other oil traders, dropped anchor at Lomé or at Cotonou. From there, theydivided up their cargo (#mother ships#) among smaller vessels (#daughter ships#) through #ship-to-ship# transfers that can be chartered by several major Nigerian importers.In doing this, the oil companies created particularly complicated paper trail, which makes it almost impossible for the authoritiesto reconcile the Bill of lading they receive with the actual oil delivered. It is these ship-to-ship operations that drove the Parliament#s auditors to speak of #collusion# between traders and marketers and of the existence of a #clear conspiracy#. They thus noted that in 2011 Vitol carried out more than 250 voyages of this type for 34 different marketers.

Issues that require further scrutiny
These controversies illustrate how Vitol takesadvantageof contextsof weak governance to circumvent the law and make large profits without being held accountable. While these two controversies have already received some attention, both in Nigeria and through an investigation of the Swiss NGO Berne Declaration (now PublicEye), there are other signs of obscure and risky business practices that have not yet been investigated and that will be explored in this project. Particularly worrying are the close ties between the NNPC and Vitol, and Vitol#s recent activities in the Niger Delta.

Activities in the Niger River delta:
In January 2018 the news came outthat Vitol will lead a $530 oil-for-loan deal with a Nigerian energy company, Shoreline Group, which will give the oil trader preferential accessto physical cargoes, amounting to at least 30,000 barrels a day of crude produced in the oil-rich Niger-Delta. The $530 oil-for-loan deal will be used by Shoreline Energy to develop an oilfield in the Niger Delta, in exchange for access to part of the output.  The Nigerian oilproducer doubled its crude output following this arrangement. Part of the funding arrangement is also that Shoreline will work with Vitol to market the crude, and to develop its export logistics capabilities. While international producers, including Royal Dutch Shell Plc withdrew from the oil-rich Niger River delta, Shoreline is one of the several Nigerian producers that did enter the area.  This raises the question to what extent Vitol and Shoreline Energy have taken into consideration the humanrights risks involved in producing and trading in this conflict-affected area.

Relation with NNPC:
According to the Berne Declaration, Vitol (together with Trafigura) outclasses its competitors thanks to the opaque partnerships they have established with theNNPCin Bermuda. The use of opaque jurisdictions like Bermuda in the context of the partnerships between Vitol and the NNPC, point at tax avoidance practices which are detrimental to the Nigerian state.  Furthermore, as already became apparent in the controversy around oil mispricing and the subsidy fraud, sales between NNPC and Vitol and Trafigura were carried out at prices lower than the market rates.    Clearly, the relation between Vitol#s subsidiary Hyson and the NNPC merits further scrutiny.

These are some of the leads that will be explored further in the research that  CISLAC will carry out in Nigeria in cooperation with a local partner organization and with the collaboration of Oxfam Nigeria.

Research proposal: research questions, research methods, timeline
Research questions
The research for the project will follow a two phase approach: Phase 1) a further mapping of Vitol#s operations in Nigeria that will offer a general background on Vitol#s corporate structure and business strategy in Nigeria, and will identify interesting leads toexplore more in-depth in the second phase of the research; Phase 2) in-depth research on one or two specific issues with clear adverse impact for Nigerian citizens, either indirectly through the loss of state revenues (e.g. tax avoidance, unfavourable deals for the Nigerian state etc.), or more directly through involvement in the production of oil in the Niger Delta (e.g. activities of Shoreline in the Niger Delta).

Research methods
The research methods willconsist of a combination of:

1- Desk research (literature study, database research # Orbis, Reuters Eikon, other, annual reports of the company and its subsidiaries, other documentation on the company#s operations retrieved from the company#s website,from the Cooperate Affairs Commission (CAC), the Nigerian Chamber of Commerce, the Nigeria Industry Transparency Initiative a.o.)
2- In-depth interviews with key informants (officials at the NNPC and at otherrelevant institutions in Nigeria # e.g. relevant ministries, controlling institutions etc.; experts on oil trade in Nigeria and on Vitol in particular # e.g. academics, civil society activists working on the topic, employees at the NITI, journalists investigatingthe issue)
3- If relevant (mostlyforthe second phase of the research, and if there are signs of direct human rights impacts on a particular community(ies) in the Niger Delta): participatory research methods to investigate adverse human rights impacts of local communities(e.g.focus group discussions, storytelling etc.).

Research products
Each phase will result in a separate research product:

1- Phase 1: a briefing paper of approximately 10 to 15 pages setting the stage for the more in-depth research carried out in the second phase ofthe project.
2- Phase 2: a research report with a more in-depth analysis of the human rights impacts of Vitol#s business operations in Nigeria.
This research will largely inform the campaign on illicit financial flow in the oil andgas industry in Nigeria, particularly with oil and gas marketers, both in the up-stream and the down-stream.