• Friday, March 29, 2024
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Reps to probe 5.2m barrels crude allocation to direct sale, purchase in 3 years

Spreading MDAs across geopolitical zones

The House of Representatives on Wednesday resolved to set up an ad-hoc committee to investigate the allocation of 5.2 million barrels of crude oil under the Direct Sale Direct Purchase (DSDP) scheme from 2018 to date.

The committee is to also investigate crude oil allocation per refinery and the rationale for such allocation as well as what happens to the un-utilized stock of crude oil in the case of a refinery with inadequate production capacity.

The resolution followed the adoption of a motion of urgent public importance sponsored by Abubakar Yalleman (APC, Jigawa) at plenary.

Presenting the motion, Yalleman recalled the contents of a report published in This Day Newspaper of 14th February 2021 which brought to national attention the unfortunate details of how Nigeria’s crude oil is being stolen or diverted daily.

Read Also: Why Nigeria’s oil industry is losing investments; Okowa

He said the report showed that approximately 5.2 million barrels of crude oil supposedly allocated to comatose Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) refineries in 2018 under Direct Sales Direct Purchase (DSDP) operations are unaccounted for.

“Essentially, almost half of the 10.9 million barrels of crude oil allocated for domestic supply between June 2018 and July 2019 as reported by the NNPC is either stolen or diverted,” Yalleman said.

“The average price for Nigerian crude oil in 2018 was $65 which means that the unaccounted volume may have denied the country USD339 million at a time of acute revenue deficit.

“Deeply worried by this report and would like to know: the status of the 5.2 million barrels allocated for domestic supply in 2018 till date; crude oil allocation per refineries and the rationale for such allocation. In a case of inadequate production capacity, what happens to the un-utilized stock of crude oil?

“At the spate of missing critical national revenue and is worried that unless these leakages are plugged, they will deepen the national deficit even further thus depriving the country of the much-needed development,” he said.