Epstein Eyed Nigerian Oil Trade, But Feared Being Defrauded
Epstein Eyed Nigerian Oil Trade, But Feared Being Defrauded
In a 2010 email exchange between Epstein and a contact known as David Stern, the two discussed the mechanics of lifting Nigerian crude, including the intricacies of dealing with Nigeria’s National Oil Company.
Epstein developed cold feet for fear of being defrauded.
NNPC has historically been notorious for corruption, lack of transparency, and financial mismanagement.
Jeffrey Epstein's dark web of global dealings is known to have stretched far and wide, with the disgraced and deceased American tycoon now infamous for having used his network to engage in various high-stakes, often secretive, financial, and political maneuvers designed to leverage his elite social circle for profit. While he is, perhaps, better known for his infamous sex crimes, recent revelations by the so-called Epstein files suggest that the man utilized his immense wealth, and his role as a "collector of people" to establish a system of influence and potential blackmail that spanned industries and even continents.
And now, newly released documents have revealed that Epstein took a keen interest in trading Nigerian oil, but ultimately backed off due to fears of being defrauded.
In a 2010 email exchange between Epstein and a contact known as David Stern, the two discussed the mechanics of lifting Nigerian crude, including the intricacies of dealing with Nigeria’s National Oil Company, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. However, Epstein developed cold feet for fear of being defrauded, a rich irony for a man who’s known to have acquired his wealth mainly through a pyramid of deception and abuse.
That said, it’s easy to see why Epstein was attracted to Nigerian oil. NNPC has historically been notorious for corruption, lack of transparency, and financial mismanagement. For decades, it has been central to allegations regarding missing oil revenues, with various reports indicating billions of dollars in losses. Various audits have previously flagged billions of dollars in missing or unremitted funds: a 2016 audit found the company failed to pay $16 billion in oil revenues, while another report noted $1.48 billion in missing revenue.
More recently, investigations in 2025 highlighted over ?210 trillion ($153 billion) in unaccounted revenue. Despite spending billions of dollars on "turnaround maintenance" for its refineries over many years, they have remained largely non-functional, leading to accusations of contract inflation and fraud. Former officials have been involved in major money laundering and bribery scandals, with instances of huge sums of cash being seized from officials. Older reports indicated massive losses from direct oil theft, with some reports claiming "nearly all" production at certain hubs like Bonny was lost to vandalism.
In response to these issues, NNPC was restructured into the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) in 2022 under the Petroleum Industry Act, aiming to operate as a commercial entity with better accountability. Unfortunately, financial malfeasance, corruption, and systemic irregularities remain deeply embedded in Nigeria’s oil sector, hamstringing economic growth.
Dangote Refinery: A Game Changer
It’s not all doom and gloom at Africa’s largest oil producer, with the giant Dangote Refinery fundamentally reshaping not only the country’s but also the global energy landscape by transitioning Nigeria from a net importer of fuel to a self-sufficient producer and exporter. In a reversal of historical roles, the $20 billion, 650k-barrels per day refinery has begun exporting diesel and aviation fuel to Europe and gasoline to the United States. The Dangote refinery is delivering Euro V specification fuels, which meet or exceed the quality of products previously imported from Europe.
This direct competition in the "home" markets of European refiners is further squeezing their profit margins. Further, by producing locally, the refinery has already forced a decline in Nigerian petrol imports to their lowest levels since 2017, thus saving precious foreign exchange. For decades, European refineries (primarily in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp hub) profited from a "gasoline-for-crude" trade with Nigeria. The Dangote refinery is now projected to end this $17 billion-a-year market, forcing European exporters to find new destinations for their surplus fuel.
And, Dangote is not about to start sleeping on its laurels, with the company looking to further expand production. Recently, three subsidiaries of Dangote Industries Limited--Dangote Petroleum Refinery, Dangote Fertiliser Plant and Dangote Cement Plc--signed expanded Gas Sales and Purchase Agreements (GSPA) with NNPC. The contracts secure the fuel volumes necessary for expanding industrial facilities and increasing production capacity across Dangote’s refinery, fertilizer, and cement operations.
The signing occurred during the unveiling of the Nigeria Gas Master Plan (NGMP) 2026 in Abuja, a roadmap designed to increase national production to 10 billion cubic feet per day by 2027. For the country, the agreements position the Dangote Group as a central player in Nigeria's goal to attract over $60 billion in investments across the gas value chain by 2030. The initiative aims to transform Nigeria's 210 trillion cubic feet of proven gas reserves into a catalyst for domestic industrial growth and energy security. For the Dangote Petroleum Refinery, the deal is a critical step in securing the energy requirements needed to potentially double its current 650,000 barrels-per-day capacity.
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