Douglas Blessing
A Rivers-born scientist, Ricky Alioma Owunari-Brown is seeking the intervention of the International Criminal Court of Justice at the Hague, over claims that a technology he invented to ease the transportation of oil and gas products in wells and pipelines, have been hijacked.
Brown has also petitioned the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) as well as President Mohammadu Buhari, urging them to use their good offices to investigate his claims and ensure that justice is served.
The tools manufacturer who made the appeal recently at a press conference in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital, claimed that 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.
He claims he has 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 a hard-earned intellectual property.
He said his claim was premised on the fact that the regulatory body failed 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.
Brown disclosed 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.
Narrating the origin of the problem, he said it began 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.
“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”, Brown lamented.
He went on, “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 to help 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.
He went on: “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 said he got to know what the “IP thief” was up to through a publication in the Guardian newspaper of November 24, 2021 where the chemicals dealer claimed that he has invented a new technology called Paraffin Melting Tool.
“The impostor claimed that after testing their tool here in Nigeria, they went to America, to the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston, Texas, where every technology owners display their tools and then claim they have deployed the technology in Nigeria”, Brown said.
He expressed belief that as a chemical dealer as well as a specialized Well Testing person who uses the chemicals to clean the wells, talking about elimination of chemicals will automatically put him out of business.
Brown dismissed the claim that his firm did not get patent for the product, describing such insinuation as baseless.
“Please where was the chemical dealer and Paraffin Melting Tool in the year 2003 when we were appointed as an exclusive distributor of the paraffin control system to market and promote the product based on an appointment date of January 10, 2003”, he queried, assuring that he would produce the documents upon request.
Ricky Brown while harping on the conspiracy theory, stressed that any claim of Paraffin Melting Tool coming to Nigeria in 2016 is to him, a blatant lie.
Brown revealed that the benefit of his invention to the oil and gas industry is enormous as it’s application would have a positive impact on the environment and reduce costs of production with a mild temperature.
He further added that the de-waxing tool would assist the oil and gas industries at a very affordable and environmentally friendly cost.
The distraught inventor disclosed that he applied for approval to the regulatory body on September 14, 2020 with reference number DPR/E&S/SCATA/TA/485/28, which the body obliged him, noting that although approval was secured; he was not given the opportunity to deploy it to the end users.
Brown said he took the technology to several conferences and even displayed it at the 2nd edition of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board Research and Development Fair and Conference in September 2021.
He appealed to the regulatory body to consider the huge resources that have been expended on the project, and l put away sentiments by allowing a fair ground for Nigerian technologists, insisting that the chemicals dealer is collaborating with foreign companies to kill Grand Check, just the same way they did to Ricano.
