The House of Representatives has reportedly discovered that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) did not remit a total of $81.2bn crude oil proceeds to the Federation Account in four years.
The House ad hoc committee investigating the alleged export of $17 billion worth of undeclared crude oil and gas resources was said to have uncovered this.
The committee has demanded answers from the corporation, as the investigation, which covers the year 2011 to 2014, intensifies.
The committee is chaired by Mr. Abdulrazak Namdas, a member of the All Progressives Congress from Adamawa State.
It was gathered that before committee concluded on the unremitted funds, it had analysed documents from various sources, including the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, Central Bank of Nigeria, Department of Petroleum Resources and the NNPC itself.
Punch obtained a document containing the set of questions sent to the NNPC, in which the committee noted that the total receipts from crude proceeds for the four years tallied at $123.9 billion.
But the committee found that the NNPC only remitted $42.7 billion to the Federation Account, “giving a frightening shortfall of $81.2bn.”
The average crude oil prices per barrel for the respective years were $111.90 (2011); $112.01 (2012); $110.12 (2013); and $101.91 (2014).
The barrels sold for the respective years were 301.7 million; 296.4 million; 267.1 million; and 270.7 million, bringing the total for the four years to 1.136 billion barrels.
The lawmakers clarified that the per year breakdown of the expected earnings were $33.7 billion (2011); $33.2 billion (2012); $29.4 billion (2013); and $27.5 billion (2014), totalling $123.9 billion.
According to the committee, the corporation declared only $42.7 billion, a figure which was confirmed by the CBN.
It was broken down into $14.3 billion (2011); $10.2 billion (2012); $8.4 billion (2013); and $9.8 billion (2014).
“The committee’s worries are anchored on the fact that out of the expected receipt of $123.9bn, the CBN confirmed a total receipt of only $42.7bn, giving a shortfall of $81.2bn,” the document stated.
The committee also questioned the NNPC on the conflicting reports by the corporation and the DPR on crude lifting from Pennington in 2011.
The NNPC had claimed that 991.4 million barrels and 960.4 million barrels were lifted in May and October, respectively, but the DPR reported that there was only one lifting of 960.4 million barrels in October.
The NNPC was given one-week ultimatum to provide answers to the queries.
The committee, as ordered by the House, is investigating allegations that major government agencies colluded with International Oil Companies to short-change Nigeria in the crude and gas exports deals.
The lawmakers had established evidence of fraudulent transactions and irregularities in crude and gas exports within the period under review.
(Omojuwa.com)
