NEITI asks Reps to probe unremitted oil revenue

Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI) on Wednesday tasked the House of Representatives to investigate the $37 billion of unremitted revenue accrued from sales of Nigeria’s crude oil between 2011 and 2014.

According to the agency, a total of 1.492 billion barrels of federation crude oil were lost within the period under review.

Waziri Adio, NEITI’s Executive Secretary gave the charge during his presentation to the Adhoc Committee investigating alleged $17 billion stolen crude oil and Liquified Natural Gas to foreign destinations, chaired by Abdulrazak Namdas (APC-Adamawa) at the National Assembly complex, Abuja.

He alleged that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) failed to remit total sum of $21 billion confirmed crude oil sale into the Federation Account between 2011 and 2014.

Adio added that additional sum of $15.9 billion dividend realised from the 49 percent equity of Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Limited (held on behalf of Federal Government) was not remitted in the Federation Revenue Account.

While expressing concern over the leakages in the process of lifting of crude oil for export from major terminals, Adio observed that Nigeria losses about $600 million yearly as a result of non-pasage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).

Adio said reported loss of crude to theft and vandalism from reports by three International Oil Companies (IOCs)  operating in the country, amounted to $15.8 billion during the period under review, out of several other reported cases.

The breakdown of losses incurred from Federation lifting alone showed a total of 385 million barrels was lost in 2011, 402 million barrels in 2012, 363 million  barrels in 2013 and 342 million barrels in 2014.

To this end, he urged the Committee to be more clinical as the $15.8 billion lost to theft and vandalism was likely to be part of the $17 billion being investigated by the Ad-hoc Committee.

The NEITI helmsman who noted that the revenue losses might have been incurred with active connivance of Nigerian officials at the oil lifting platforms, argued that Nigeria has no comprehensive mechanism for monitoring and evaluation of actual oil lifted at various platforms.

According to him, instead of three meters to be installed at the terminals, Nigeria has two that were not properly placed, hence the officials rely on third party reports which may not reflect the true amount of crude lifted.

“Nigeria is losing revenue to oil theft on industrial scale and at a time, it is easy to see physical stealing of oil from a low flying helicopter.

“There are several things that must be looked into with a view of taking necessary action.

“For instance, the NLNG got $15.9 billion as dividends as Nigeria’s returns for its 49 percent equity in NLNG Limited.

“Meanwhile this dividend was collected by the NLNG but was not found in the Federation Account. We need to ask question about what happened to the money.

“Also the implication of non-passage of the PIB is that the country is losing about $600 million annually as a result of things that ought to be in place but not yet in place,” Audio said.

Members of the Ad-hoc Committee also expressed displeasure over the submission of representative of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) who disclosed that lack of capacity was responsible for offshore deployment of officials with no technical or specialized training to monitor and evaluate vessels lifting crude oil.

The Service also claimed that it lack of ocean-going vessels to carry out the inspection was part of its constraints as it has to rely on vessels owned by international pil companies (IOC) to access lifting oil platforms.

While reacting to the Customs submission, the lawmakers who described the statement as regrettable, accused NCS of deliberately compromising its constitutional responsibilities.

KEHINDE AKINTOLA, Abuja