A Rivers state-born scientist, Ricky Alioma Owunari Brown,claims his oil technology product has been stolen by an American firm.
He has petitioned President Muhammadu Buhari and the International Criminal Court of Justice, ICCJ, at the Hague, over claims that a technology he invented to ease the transportation of oil and gas products in wells and pipelines, has been hijacked.
He also petitioned the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission,ICPC,urging the agency to investigate his claims and ensure that justice is served.
At a press conference in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, Brown said the stolen technology, known as Paraffin Control System or de-waxer flow enhancer, is his brain child and product of years of intense research.
Brown, a Director in Grand Check Limited, an oil and gas firm headquartered in Port Harcourt, said the De-waxer Flow Enhanser is a patented product of Grand Check and it’s sister company, Loving Brothers Limited and their American partner, Ener Tec Inc. USA.
According to him,he had established a conspiracy between a Nigerian chemicals dealer and the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) as well as the Federal Ministry of Industry using an American company, Paraffin Melting Tool, to steal what he claimed was his intellectual property.
He said his claim came on the heels of the fact that the regulatory bodyfailed to address the complaint which he raised in a petition made to the body, but rather used the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) to “legitimize’ the alleged IP theft.
He added that Paraffin Melting Tool had a similar technology to what he invented, and that while the name of one is Paraffin Melting
Tool his own technology is Paraffin Control System.
He disclosed that the problem begun in year 2000,while Grand Check and sister companies, Ricano Oil and Gas Company and Loving Brothers Company were trying to firm up the technology and in the process, invited an American company, Cal Dive International, to Nigeria to help out in deployment of the technology in Nigeria.
He said:”But rather than keep to terms of our agreement, Cal Dive went behind
to the regulatory body, collecting our jobs, so much so that Ricano became bankrupt as all investors left the company, a development that resulted in the death of its Director, Mr. Larry Braide. It was because they killed Ricano that we brought our sister company, Loving Brothers.
“We reported to the US Embassy and they asked us to register with the Consulate, which we did. We were given some magazines from where we got in touch with Ener Tec. Inc. USA.Ener Tec Inc. USA is an American company that appointed us as Sole
Distributor of Paraffin Control System. We had a deal with them tohelp us deploy our technology because at that time we didn’t have the deployment skills
“So, we invited Ener Tec. Inc. USA. They came to Nigeria and we gave them everything and they gave us a letter that they’re going to work
with us. We will work with them as partners in terms of deployment,both offshore construction and others so that we can develop our people”, he said.
“To our greatest surprise, we now saw an American company which came up with the name ‘Paraffin Melting Tool, a technology
similar to what we have. The idea is to export ours to America and then return it as a foreign technology and claim to have been in existence from 2016, forgetting that our technology has been under incubation since 2003”.
He added that he got to know what the “IP thief” was up to through a publication in a national newspaper of November 24, 2021 where the chemicals dealer claimed that he has invented a new technology called Paraffin Melting Tool.