Report 73 — The Testimonies of Brent Dodd, Chris Ward & Michael Webb
This week, the court heard from three former Lundin Oil employees: testimony from communications engineer Chris Ward and watched the videotaped police interviews of legal manager Michael Webb and Brent Dodd, a logistics manager. Alexandre Schneiter’s defence teams had called Brent Dodd and Michael Webb.
Brent Dodd’s police interview
The recorded police interview with Brent Dodd was held on 10 October 2014. Dodd had worked as a logistics manager for Lundin Oil managing the Rubkona camp. He had previously worked overseas, including for the company Geosource in various places in Africa.
Dodd started working for Lundin Oil in 1999 and continued until 2002. During 2002, operations had stopped so he returned to the camp to pack things up and only spent five weeks in Sudan that year. He worked on a rotating schedule with five weeks on and five weeks off, switching with his colleague Jeff Ferguson, and they were seen as the managers of the camp. They did not have any decision-making power but made sure that everything was in order and that everyone got fed. Ferguson and Dodd reported to and received instructions from the head office in Khartoum and were in contact with them every day over radio, usually with Ken Barker or Ted Nesbith. In the radio room, they had a diary in which they noted any verbal instructions they received. Typically, they would get instructions to expect a truck with material arriving in a few days.
Dodd was initially recruited and hired by Ted Nesbith, who was a friend of his. Nesbith gave him a verbal summary of the situation in Sudan. “He said things were quiet down there. I’m not a hero or anything, if I felt that it was not safe there, I wouldn’t have gone,” Dodd stated.
Dodd said that he and Ferguson had the authority to make decisions about purchases up to a certain amount. They were given cash from the head office which they could use to pay the local workers, purchase fuel, or hire local equipment. He did not remember exactly how much money they had but said that it was not a lot, maybe around five thousand pounds in the local currency. Any outstanding costs needed to be confirmed by the office in Khartoum. They recorded all the money spent and when needed they would receive more cash from Khartoum, usually once a month.
A locally employed foreman was responsible for the local employees and would keep track of how much they worked and paid them their salaries from the cash kept at the camp. He reported to Dodd and Ferguson. Dodd and Ferguson would in turn make daily reports to Khartoum about personnel at the camp, equipment purchased, tasks for the local employees, and anything else of note.
At the camp site, an old aircraft hangar left by Chevron functioned as a warehouse. The accommodation area of the camp was fenced in with a security fence topped with barbed wire for security reasons and to prevent thefts. Dodd and Ferguson were the only ones who could access the keys to the warehouse, which no one else could use. The company used the warehouse to store drilling materials and other equipment that needed to be kept indoors out of the rain.
The camp also had vehicles with diesel engines and a fuel tank on site with a padlock for which only Dodd and Ferguson had keys, although they received regular requests from others, including PetSec, to access the fuel. Dodd could not remember anyone outside of the camp ever receiving permission to refuel there. Lundin Oil also had access to a contracted helicopter stationed on the base. An airplane came from Khartoum weekly to bring new personnel and supplies like cash and food into the camp. Heavy goods arrived by trucks. The plane landed on an airstrip adjacent to the camp; it was already there when they built the camp.
Asked about regular meetings at the camp, Dodd described meetings about tasks with the local employees and regular safety meetings with HSE. Dodd could not recall if these meeting were weekly or monthly. He said that HSE had employees including Hood and Glendinning who were former military there for security. At these meetings, any staff present at the base would participate, as well as security officers hired by Lundin who functioned as liaisons between Lundin Oil, Petroleum Security, and the Sudanese army. The HSE and other employees were forbidden to speak directly to PetSec and had to go through the security officers who were accommodated on the camp. No uniformed personnel were present at these meetings. Dodd explained that if something happened, like an attack on a village, the security level could be changed during these meetings and travel to certain areas would be restricted. The applicable security levels were displayed on a whiteboard outside the office.
Ian Lundin made several visits to the camp, according to Dodd, and Adolf Lundin visited once or twice. Dodd said that one thing that he liked about working for Lundin Oil was that Ian and other managers were very approachable. “They would show an interest – a breath of fresh air in the industry.” One time a Sudanese military general stayed at the camp since it was more comfortable than the nearby army camp. However, no weapons at all were allowed at the camp.
Dodd was then asked to talk about Petroleum Security and the Sudanese military. He said that PetSec was like a police or military organisation. They had a base located approximately 100 yards from the Lundin camp, which was very basic. They were armed and some were uniformed. PetSec had their own vehicles with machine guns mounted on the back, and they would lead security convoys for the Lundin staff. They were permitted to fuel their vehicles from Lundin’s tank but only for convoy duty.
Dodd explained that the military did not protect Lundin’s staff, but they had checkpoints along the all-weather road as protection against rebel activity. There was a military camp close to the Lundin base camp. When asked about attack helicopters, Dodd said that he saw them once or twice on the airstrip close to the Lundin camp, but that he thought that they were based in Unity State. He also saw military planes with personnel two or three times, but never any army or troop movements. The military was not able to refuel at the Lundin camp.
Dodd was then asked about “pads” that Lundin supposedly built for the military – raised areas, where the military could establish camps that would not be flooded in the rainy season. Dodd testified that he believed that the company built these pads but did not know how many. He recalled there being at least two along the all-weather road and one at the rig site at Thar Jath. The ones along the road were about 50 by 50 meters and had small military camps on them, with tents that Lundin Oil had purchased for the military checkpoints along the all-weather road. Dodd testified that when the refugee problem became bad. he received orders from Khartoum that they should not give the tents to the military but to refugees in Bentiu instead. Lundin Oil also provided water to the checkpoints with Lundin’s water truck, and placed water barrels near the villages. Dodd said that he believed this to be “part of the deal.” He also said that the military flew in Lundin’s helicopters “once or twice.” On one of these occasions, a military officer and a security officer flew with Ken Barker to inspect the security in Thar Jath. Lundin personnel never flew with military planes or helicopters.
Dodd recalled having seen child soldiers “all over Africa” when working there. During his employment with Lundin he saw armed young people, around 12-13 years of age, in the company of the military, but he was not sure if they were in the army, since “sometimes villagers also walked with the military.” Dodd did not know much about the local rebel groups or militias since the whole situation confused him, he said. He put his trust in the HSE. He also stated that he was not sure that Petroleum Security were there to protect Lundin staff. His impression was rather that they were there to protect the oil since the government had an interest in the oil. “I would not have trusted the military or Petroleum Security to have protected me, I only trusted our HSE guys.”
The interview then moved on to the alarming reports from NGOs about the human rights situation and Dodd was asked if he thought that there was a war going on at the time. Dodd said that he did not feel any more unsafe in Sudan than he felt in other countries in Africa in which he had worked. He knew that there were active rebel groups, but he was not aware that there was a war. He had read the ECOS report but said that it did not reflect his experience in Sudan and that he did not know where they got their information from. During his time in Sudan. he read what the media wrote about the situation but said that he did not trust media since they were sensationalist and that he could see the situation for himself on the ground. “Lundin had a community development programme. One might think this is not a big deal, but they were the only company I’ve worked with in Africa that had this. This shows that they were a company with a conscience. I can’t see them attacking the people in the area while trying to do something good for them at the same time,” Dodd continued. The community development work included hiring local staff, sending supplies to local schools and hospitals, supplying water down the road, and operating field clinics.
Dodd was then asked if he saw anything like what the reports had mentioned, including houses that had been burnt down, cattle driven away, and people being killed. He said that he once saw a small settlement with four or five straw huts, of which a couple had been burnt within 50 yards from the all-weather road. The locals told him that they lived there and each year set fire to the old grass so fresh grass would grow the next season, and sometimes the fire would spread to the huts. He testified that he travelled along the entirety of the all-weather road at least once and never saw any other settlements along the road. He did see quite a lot of people and said that the locals used the road frequently.
Lundin Oil suspended its operations after attacks on the rig site and against the seismic crew, according to Dodd. “I thought it was a shame that Lundin pulled out because another company took over and they stopped the community development work that Lundin had done.”
The testimony of Chris Ward
Alexandre Schneiter’s defence attorney Johan Rainer began by asking Chris Ward about his experience in Sudan before his employment with Lundin Oil. Ward had previously worked as a communications engineer in Sudan with a company called Geosource, on and off between 1981 – 1986. Their main clients were Chevron and Total. During this period, he testified, they would refer to what would later be called Block 5A as “the Swamp” and he spent approximately two months per year in the area. Ward said that the security situation during this time felt okay but that there was often tribal fighting and rebel activity in the area. The work site in Rubkona was attacked in 1983 and as a result the operations shut down. Despite this, Ward always felt safe during his work.
He was contacted by a former colleague who offered him work with Lundin Oil and he started working in Sudan with Lundin in 1998-1999. His first assignment was to set up communication equipment when they were building the accommodation for the rig site in Bentiu. He installed high frequency equipment for the main camp and equipped some cars with communication devices as well as installing a small VHF-network. When he arrived in Sudan, he thought that it was very similar to how it had been during the 80s. When asked if he went to Rubkona, he said that there was a bulldozer there with a tree growing out of it, left by Chevron, and he went to look at it for “the fun of it.”
Ward estimated that during this period of 1998-1999, before the base camp in Rubkona had been built, he made five or six trips to Sudan. He travelled multiple times to the rig site to try to establish better communications with the Khartoum office. To travel from Bentiu to the rig site he would typically go by helicopter, and he testified that he could easily have taken more than 50 helicopter rides during this period until drilling commenced. He described the area between Bentiu and the rig site as “[v]ery typical bush, nothing terribly exciting.” They did not fly over any densely populated areas. Ward stated that he never saw any fighting, either from a helicopter or a vehicle.
Ward was then asked about former colleagues, and he confirmed that he had worked with Richard Ramsey, Ian Glendinning, Dick Deary, and Ken Barker. He did not recieve Barker’s weekly reports and only had infrequent interactions with Barker about work but met him more socially. He could not recall ever having met Alexandre Schneiter, but he knew that some data went to Schneiter. He met Ian Lundin once or twice very briefly in the staff housing and they never discussed work.
Ward’s recollection was that he went to the basecamp in Rubkona to install permanent communications just after the first cabins there had been built. When they were establishing the Rubkona base in early 2000, he spent a 12-week period on site. During this time, he took a lot of flights to the rig site to set up communications. On average, he spent five months a year in Sudan from 2000 onwards. He went to Sudan when he was needed and spent the majority of the time in Block 5A and at the Rubkona base. However, he knew that he was away from Sudan for at least six months in 2002 when the camp was evacuated.
Ward was asked to build a communications system between Rubkona and Thar Jath. To do so, he needed to place technical equipment in the middle of the all-weather road, at what would have been around the 40 km mark. However, it was placed at the 30 km mark since it would be easier to place and defend there. Ward estimated that he first travelled on the road to conduct a survey in mid-2001 and that he installed the equipment in the later part of that year. Attorney Rainer then displayed a report from Barker in which he wrote that the survey was conducted at the end of 2000, not in the middle part of 2001.
While he did not remember the exact time for the survey, Ward remembered more about the trip when he installed the equipment. During this trip they were supposed to be escorted by a security convoy, but the security personnel took off to drink tea as soon as they left camp. “They weren´t interested in escorting us anywhere,” Ward recalled. He saw some civilians walking along the road, though not many, as well as some lorries going to the market and he also saw civilians having tea at the military checkpoints. Civilians would hang onto the sides of these trucks to catch a ride, or sat on top of the vehicles. When asked if any civilians seemed frightened by him or when walking on the road Ward replied, “No, they were quite happy to walk on the road. It was a typical encounter in most areas where I’ve worked across the world.”
Ward told the court that the first settlement that made any impact on him was around the 30 km mark. He did not remember seeing any huts on the side of the road before the 30 km mark, but after that he saw some individual huts. Rainer then displayed the transcript of Ward’s police interview from 9 October 2014 in which Ward told the police that he did see “the usual hodge podge of huts and people.” He explained that “hodge podge” meant that there were some scattered huts along the road. When asked if what he said in 2014 could be true, Ward said that he could not now remember exactly when and where he saw things but that there had not been any big collection of huts or a village along the road that one would notice. Asked if he saw any signs of fighting or violence, he responded: “No absolutely not, and actually, during the time I spend in the block and in Sudan I have never experienced or witnessed anything there.”
Rainer then asked Ward a series of short questions about his experiences working along the all-weather road. Ward travelled along the road hundreds of times and often without a security escort since they usually took off on their own. He always felt safe. There were always some civilians along the road, and he never saw any frightened civilians or anyone fleeing. Nor did he ever see any fighting, militias, or burned villages when travelling on the road.
Towards the end of 2001, Ward travelled to Leer to install a mast and a radio for the community development doctor. The trip did not leave any special impression on him. The community doctor picked them up and transported them and the equipment to a military camp just outside the village where Ward put up the mast. No one in Leer expressed that they did not want Lundin to be there. When asked if any civilians ever were afraid of him or expressed that they did not want them there, Ward said, “No, I have never experienced that. The local workers were mostly from the local area and if they had been upset, they would have told us. That has never happened.”
Ward testified that during 2000-2001 when he flew frequently over the block, he never saw any signs of fighting. The judge interrupted and said that Ward first said that he mostly flew and then said that he travelled along the all-weather road at least a hundred times and asked him to clarify. Ward said that they travelled by helicopter until the all-weather road was finished and after that they mostly used the road since it was cheaper. Rainer then asked if Ward was aware of the reports from various NGOs about fighting and forced displacement. Ward said that they used to joke during breakfast, and someone would say “oh, were you out playing with matches and lighting the area on fire because there have been reports about this.” He added that they had never seen anything like that and wondered where the reports got their information. Ward continued by saying that he understood that it might have been wrong to joke about this, but that that was the mood in the group.
The focus then turned to the communications systems Ward installed. One was a VHF-radio. Ward created a VHF network throughout the block that covered Rubkona, Thar Jath, and the all-weather road. This enabled communication between everyone who worked in the area. All the expats received hand-held radios as well as one local HSE staff member. There were also some vehicle-mounted VHF radios and fixed base stations at Rubkona and Thar Jath. Asked if the HSE personnel on the ground that he had described could have been Sudanese staff that worked in Petroleum Security, Ward responded that yes, that was the correct description.
The defense noted that some of the plaintiffs who had testified earlier in the trial worked as radio operators. Ward said that the role of radio operator over-described their capability. Their tasks consisted of making a note when someone left camp, noting how many people left, where they were going and in which vehicle, and when they were expected to return. This was a safety measure. The radio operators also listened to the radio and if someone called and wanted to speak to someone in particular, the radio operators would get that person. Ward could only recall two names, Andrew and Stephen, although he did not remember their last names. One of them he knew as “the preacher” since he had said that he was a lay preacher. Ward said that it became clear in their conversations that “the preacher” was very anti-Muslim. “His opinion was that the only good Muslim was a dead Muslim.” Ward described this conversation as “probably the worst conversation I’ve had with a local.”
Ward was then asked if the military ever received radios from the company. When Lundin staff were supposed to be escorted by the military, the first and last vehicle in the convoy would get a radio. These radios were returned to Lundin after the trip. Rainer asked if Ward thought that the security convoy was the military or Petroleum Security. “My understanding at the time was that anyone with a green uniform and a gun was army. Today I think it might have been Petroleum Security.”.
The radios worked in a way that anyone who used the radio could be heard by everyone and there were no means for private communication. This was due to security concerns, so that everyone would be able to hear if there was an emergency. It was not possible to communicate at night without everyone hearing because they had radios in their rooms that were always on. All communication was mainly in English, although in some instances radio operators were asked to interpret something. Other than those occasions, someone would interrupt and say “English only” if anyone started talking in another language. Ward was then asked if anyone else checked that the system was used correctly when he was not there. He said that the staff who were always there would enforce this rule. He could not monitor from a distance but upon his return he used to go through the call logs. Lundin rented the equipment from Ward and when the rig was shutdown, they paid a lesser rate, but the systems were not supposed to be used. Therefore, he wanted to make sure that no one had used it. He never saw signs that anyone had used the system during these periods and he was not aware of any incidents where the army used the system. “This may sound arrogant, but I can say that no one else in Sudan could access the system, except me,” he added.
The other communication system Ward installed were HF-radios, a form of communication allowing communication over both short and very long distances. Ward set the radio waves so that they reached Khartoum. The radios were installed in Khartoum, Rubkona, at the rig site, and in a number of company pickup trucks. As a rule, Lundin staff would speak English, but these radios allowed one to hear anyone in the world on the same frequency. For example, they could hear the Peace Corps staff in Kinshasa. The military did not receive a HF-radio from Ward or Lundin.
Rainer then asked Ward to comment on statements made by the plaintiffs who had worked as radio operators. The first statement was that Lundin gave radios to Petroleum Security and the military. Ward repeated that a local HSE employee got a radio to communicate with foreign HSEs and that the security convoys got radios when escorting them, but they handed back the radios after each trip. The radio operators were responsible for collecting the radios after each trip but since they needed to be charged overnight, either Ward or the camp manager would keep track of them. Two plaintiffs had testified that the military received radios and that they could listen to them speaking in Arabic. Ward said that this was not true because everyone else would have heard and they only had a certain number of radios, which they kept track of to ensure that there were enough for the workers. Finally, Ward was asked to comment on a statement that helicopter gunships landed at night, refueled from Lundin’s fuel tank, and that the people in the helicopters spoke Nuer. Ward stated clearly: “No. Never happened. They make a lot of noise, which would wake everyone up. And they had no access to fuel, they would have gotten Jeff or Brent to gain access to fuel. It would have caused a very memorable incident if we had been woken up in the night to a couple of gunships landing.”
With this, the defense was finished with their questioning. The prosecution then started their examination by asking about Ward’s recollection of roads to Nhialdhiu or MOK. Ward said that he recognised the names but that he could not place them precisely. His recollection of roads was that there was one road west after leaving Rubkona, and after the km 30 mark, another road went east.
Ward was then asked again if he knew various people. The prosecutor asked him if he knew Doug Wilson or Doug Maclean to which he responded that he knew of a Doug but could not recall his last name. He had more recollections of Robert Archer, who was a building inspector. Ward did not recall them working together. The prosecutor then displayed a transcript of an interview that the law firm Hogan Lovells held with Robert Archer where he stated that he and Ward inspected the road to MOK. Ward said that he never inspected a road and that the only time he and Archer were in a vehicle together was during a VIP visit to the camp. Some people came and wanted to be driven on the road and Ward thought that they had also visited a community development clinic for either veterinarians or doctors. During this VIP trip, they stopped at the first turn to the west after Rubkona and the others stepped out and looked at the road for awhile. Ward said that he was only the chauffeur since he had experience of driving in that terrain.
Attorney Rainer then showed a daily security report from 3 March 2001 which he thought might clarify this. The report stated that a group of staff drove to repair the repeater at the 30 km mark, asses the MOK road, as well as carry out a survey of locals and cattle. Ward said that he would have done the repair at the 30 km mark and that that would have been his only concern. “I would have just focused on what I was doing, I would not have paid attention to what other people were doing.” He did not remember if he was in a vehicle that travelled to the road to MOK. Here, Judge Zander asked if this was a different trip than the VIP trip. Ward said that it was a different trip and that he thought that he went on the VIP trip with Archer, but it might have been this trip.
That was the last of the prosecution’s questioning and then Percy Bratt, one of the plaintiffs’ counsels, asked Ward about his stays in Sudan. Ward repeated that he spent about five months in Sudan during 2000 and that he was in both Khartoum and Block 5A. At first, he was unsure if they had started construction on the Rubkona camp and said that if they had, he would have spent around 10 – 15 % of his time there. He then changed his mind and said that he was probably in Rubkona around half of his time in Sudan. During 2001, he also spent around five months in Sudan, approximately half of which was spent in Rubkona camp. He spent less time in Sudan the following year – only about two to three months, of which about a month and a half was spent in Rubkona. He spent a lot of time in Sudan in 2003, mostly at the rig locations rather than in Rubkona.
The other plaintiffs’ counsel, Anders Sjögren, then commenced his questioning by asking Ward about his trip to Leer. Ward said that the community development doctors and their tent clinic were located on a military base outside the village. Although he could not recall exactly how many personnel there were, he did remember that a “dozen soldiers” helped him carry his equipment since he was not feeling well.
Sjögren then asked about Ward’s experiences on the all-weather road. Ward repeated that he had travelled on the road over a hundred times and that he always felt safe. When asked about landmine clearance, Ward said that he knew that when they started out in Sudan for Lundin there was a mine clearing crew because there were a lot of mines left from the civil war and that they had probably been there even before Ward was there in the 1980s. On one occasion, he left the Thar Jath camp together with Glendinning around 1:00 in the afternoon, when they came across a water truck with Sudanese troops. They seemed very upset, which Ward described as unusual. and there was a lot of water on the road. Twenty feet further ahead there was a big hole in the road. Glendinning told Ward to call for an evacuation. Sjögren then asked again how he felt about security along the road after this incident. “Fine,” he replied.
Ward continued by saying that he was pretty sure that Glendinning reported the incident since they evacuated, but that he had no knowledge of what was written. Sjögren then displayed a Sudan Update which Glendinning wrote that covered the period from 25 of December 2001 to 10 January 2002. It stated that it was believed that an explosion had happened shortly before they arrived at the scene and that the landmine had been planted the night before. Ward commented that he knew about speculation that the mine had been planted too deep, and that it possibly had been planted during the night since it would have been difficult to place it there during the day. Glendinning told him that he thought that it must have been planted too deep since Lundin staff had travelled over it earlier that day, but that the heavy water truck must have triggered it. Ward did not know who could have placed the mine. He was then asked what he thought about a mine having been placed there the night before, since this was very different from his earlier statement that they were old mines from several years ago. Ward responded that he did not understand the question, but that it did not concern him. With this, the testimony was concluded.
The recorded police interview with Michael Webb
On 4 February 2020, the Swedish police held an interview with Michael Webb, a British-qualified solicitor with an expertise in oil and gas law. He first started working for Lundin Oil on a freelance basis in 1995, initially focusing on the company’s involvement in the British North Sea. He became a full-time employee in 2001 and moved to Geneva. He was involved with the Talisman transaction and then the subsequent transition to Lundin Petroleum after the purchase. He stopped working for Lundin in April 2002. His tasks mainly involved negotiating contracts and forming subsidiaries. He was not involved in compliance, which was handled by a Swedish law firm. Webb reported to Ashley Heppenstall but also worked closely with Alexandre Schneiter and a bit with Ian Lundin.
Webb recalled that he had the exclusive authority to draft legal documents. “During my time there I think I had an exclusive authority to draft legal documents. If I had found out that anyone else drafted legal documents, I would have been annoyed about that. I tried to act in the company’s best interest and make sure that everything was in compliance with legal standards.”
Webb believed that he went on three to four trips to Sudan, mostly during 2001. There were ongoing negotiations of an exploration and production sharing agreement for acquiring Block 5B, and Webb did two trips in connection to these negotiations. He also went on trips to Sudan regarding the Talisman acquisition of Block 5A. Talisman did not, want certain assets, which necessitated several reorganisations that required the Sudanese government’s involvement. Webb therefore had meetings with the legal advisor at the Ministry of Energy.
In April 2002, Ian Lundin terminated Webb’s employment after Webb made some adverse comments about the corporate social responsibility (CSR) program. Employees had not received raises, but the company put a lot of money into the CSR programs – money that Webb felt should have been given to the employees. “Not an attitude I’m proud of – pretty selfish. Ian took exception to that and fired me,” Webb explained. When asked about the CSR program, Webb said that Christine Batruch was in charge and that during one of his trips to Sudan, he visited a Lundin Oil-supported facility that provided assistance to people who had lost limbs.
The interview then moved on to various documents that Webb drafted and/or had reviewed. He had a hard time remembering most of the documents or who had asked him to produce them. On 27 December 2001 Webb produced a document analysing the contractual force majeure provisions for Block 5A. On 3 January 2002, he reviewed a force majeure notice to BGP, a contractor for Lundin. Webb said that the security concerns was that one of their contractors had been caught up in rebel fighting. A Lundin helicopter was also shot at, which was a significant event and everyone in Geneva talked about it. There was also an incident of a water truck driving over a land mine. In February 2002, Christine Batruch created a document called “Block 5A suspension of activities” which Webb saved the same day. Although he could not remember the document, Webb said that operations were suspended due to events like the helicopter attack and the landmine incident with the water truck.
On 5 March 2002, Webb reviewed a document titled “Agreement for understanding the reimbursement of construction costs” whose purpose of was to make sure that Lundin Oil would get cost recovery under the exploration and production sharing agreement for its construction expenditures. Webb explained that once a company started producing oil, a portion of the profits from the oil would go to covering the costs incurred by the company, and the excess oil would be shared with partners and the government. One part of the document stated that the government wanted to restrict construction work to be performed mainly on the construction of all-weather roads, mainly to Leer and Mok. Webb did not know if these roads were ever built. There were also documents stating that the government would appoint a contractor and initially pay for the construction and that Lundin Oil would then reimburse the government if they were able to resume drilling operations.
Asked if he had any concluding thoughts, Webb stated: “No, I’d just like to say that during my time at the company I saw absolutely no evidence to support the allegations.”
