The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has raised the alarm over the circulation of fake letters of authorisation purportedly to buy or sell Nigerian crude oil from it.

The corporation in a statement monay, called on members of the public to be wary of persons with fraudulent intents circulating letters authorising them to lift the Bonny Light crude oil from Nigeria.

The statement was signed by the corporation?s Group General Manager, Public Affairs, Ohi Alegbe, in Abuja.

NNPC noted that one of such fictitious crude oil lifting authorisation letters was with a certain Lavi International Corp, which stated that it had entered into agreement with the corporation to supply the Bonny Light crude oil to its associated refineries.

It quoted a paragraph of one of the circulated fake letters of authorisation to have said: ?We hereby confirm that the NNPC has entered into contractual arrangements directly with Lavi International Corp, to supply Bonny Light crude oil to the Lavi International Corp associated refineries and or global traders, and that the Lavi International Corp has the power and authority to sell or otherwise deal with the Bonny Light crude oil, the subject of those contractual agreements.?

NNPC, however, stated that Lavi International Corp is not one of its crude oil off-takers for the 2014-2015 term contract periods and therefore has not been allocated any crude oil volume as speculated in the alleged fake letter of authorisation.

It further noted that the list of local and international companies duly approved as its crude oil off-takers for the 2014-2015 term contract periods has been widely publicised.

The corporation called on member of the public to avail themselves of such information to avoid being duped by unscrupulous elements.

It added: ?We are working closely with relevant security agencies to track and bring to book all those behind these nefarious activities