A source at the president's office in Brazzaville, who asked to remain anonymous, slammed the report as "an unprecedented intrusion into Congolese affairs."
The Berne Declaration, known for probes into corruption among African leaders, claims that Philia — a Swiss trading firm owned by one shareholder — signed a contract with the Republic of the Congo's state-owned refinery Coraf in 2013 to export oil products.
The contract was not obtained via a public tender process, according to the NGO.
Coraf, the nation's only oil refinery, is managed by Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso, the son of the oil-rich country's president, Denis Sassou Nguesso.
"Coraf provided the Geneva-based trader with free credit and, in doing so, enabled it to bypass the compliance procedures that trade finance banks typically conducted before allocating credit," the non-governmental group said in a statement earlier this week.
"By immediately re-selling its cargoes to third parties, including other Swiss traders, Philia acted as a pure intermediary between Coraf and the
international markets.
"Philia therefore pocketed substantial profits for zero logistical effort."
The Republic of the Congo is among the top oil producers in sub-Saharan Africa, and its economy is heavily dependent on its petrol exports.
But the country remains riddled with poverty.
The Berne Declaration —which said its claims were based on exclusive documents it obtained — alleges that the refinery is "a true financial abyss for the Congolese Treasury."
"For three years, the state has not received a single penny in exchange for the oil it allocates to the refinery," it says.
The source at the Congolese presidency voiced outrage at the allegations.
"Sooner or later, we will responde to give the true version of the facts," the source told AFP.
OIL
Swiss firm plundered Congo oil rents: NGO
An NGO has accused a Swiss trading firm of misappropriating oil rents from the Republic of the Congo thanks to an exclusive contract with a refinery managed by the son of the African state's leader.
OIL
NGOs take Norway to European Court over Arctic oil exploration
Two NGOs and six young climate activists have decided to take Norway to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to demand the cancellation of oil permits in the Arctic, Greenpeace announced on Tuesday.
It’s the latest turn in a legal tussle between environmental organisations Greenpeace and Young Friends of the Earth Norway on one side and the Norwegian state on the other.
The organisations are demanding the government cancel 10 oil exploration licenses in the Barents Sea awarded in 2016, arguing it was unconstitutional.
Referring to the Paris Agreement, which seeks to limit global warming to less than two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the organisations claim that the oil licenses violated article 112 of Norway’s constitution, guaranteeing everyone the right to a healthy environment.”
The six activists, alongside Greenpeace Nordic and Young Friends of the Earth Norway, hope that the European Court of Human Rights will hear their case and find that Norway’s oil expansion is in breach of human rights,” Greenpeace said in a statement.
In December, Norway’s Supreme Court rejected the claim brought by the organisations, their third successive legal defeat.
READ MORE: Norway sees oil in its future despite IEA’s warnings
While most of the judges on the court agreed that article 112 could be invoked if the state failed to meet its climate and environmental obligations– they did not think it was applicable in this case.
The court also held that the granting of oil permits was not contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights, in part because they did not represent “a real and immediate risk” to life and physical integrity.
“The young activists and the environmental organisations argue that this judgment was flawed, as it discounted the significance of their environmental constitutional rights and did not take into account an accurate assessment of the consequences of climate change for the coming generations,” Greenpeace said.
On Friday, the Norwegian government unveiled a white paper on the country’s energy future, which still includes oil exploration despite a warning from the International Energy Agency (IEA).
The IEA recently warned that all future fossil fuel projects must be scrapped if the world is to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
The Norwegian case is an example of a global trend in which climate activists are increasingly turning to courts to pursue their agenda.
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