According to a BBC investigationbroadcast last week, a recent oil deal in Senegal was festooned with red flags that signaled the potential for controversy and possible corruption...In 2011, the Senegalese government awarded the rights to explore two offshore oil blocks to a company called PetroTim. When a new Senegalese government came into power in 2012, it allowed PetroTim to retain rights to the blocks. In 2014, PetroTim transferred the rights to Timis Corporation which is owned by the controversial businessman Frank Timis. That same year, the American oil company Kosmos acquired 60 percent of the blocks from Timis and began exploring for oil and gas. Kosmos found major natural gas reserves, and BP then joined the partnership. Finally, as reported by the BBC, BP bought out Timis Corporation in 2017 for $250 million and a share of the gas field’s future royalties... The deals should not have proceeded in this way...

According to the BBC investigation, the award of the licenses to PetroTim, the transfer to Timis Corporation and subsequent events exhibited at least a whopping seven of our red flags, and possibly two more:

1. Unqualified company: PetroTim had no exploration experience, and was incorporated up a few weeks after the contract was signed, according to the investigation.
2. Controversial player: From decades of work in West Africa’s extractive sector, Frank Timis leaves behind a record of numerousdisturbing controversies, lying to investors and accusations ofhuman rights abuses.
3. Business relationship with a politically exposed person (PEP):By the time Kosmos arrived on the scene, Timis Corporation had hired the brother of Senegal’s president Macky Sall, who was elected in 2012.
4. Company payments to a PEP: Timis Corporation employed the president’s brother and paid him $25,000 per month. The BBC also reported a secretive payment from Timis Corporation to an offshore company owned by the president’s brother, though the company and the brother deny the payment ever existed.
5. Conflict of interest: The president oversaw decisions that benefited a company for which his brother worked...

The presence of these red flags does not prove that corruption or criminal wrongdoing occurred, and many of the parties have denied wrongdoing. In a statement to the BBC, Frank Timis and the Timis Corporation call the accusations “entirely false” and state that his company’s “pioneer capital, drive and experience” along with industry relationships were essential for unlocking the block’s potential. The Senegalese president disputed the claims against his brother, who also denied aspects of the story and said he would take legal action against the BBC. BP “rejects any implication that it acted improperly in the acquisition of our interests in Senegal” and stated that it “conducted extensive and appropriate due diligence” before acquiring the license. The company also rejected the BBC’s estimates of the royalty payments to Timis.