The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) on Wednesday said it had no evidence to show that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) remitted the $15.8bn dividend it received from the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas company to the Federation Account.
In a bid to explain the facts and figures it presented to the House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee during a recent public hearing on the alleged $17bn undeclared crude oil and liquefied natural gas exports, NEITI said the NNPC received the funds on behalf of Nigeria, but failed to remit it to the Federation Account.
It identified the unremitted NLNG dividend and loan repayments as a major source of revenue loss to the federation and explained that the NNPC, as custodian of the country’s shares in the NLNG, received her share of the dividends for 15 years amounting to $15.8bn between 2000 and 2014.
NEITI alleged that the NNPC failed to remit the proceeds to either the Federation Account or the Federal Government.
“From the presentation, the NLNG paid the dividends to NNPC but NEITI has no evidence that the NNPC remitted the funds to the Federation Account,” the Director of Communications at the agency, Dr. Ogbonnaya Orji, said in a statement issued in Abuja
“It is, therefore, incorrect to report, as some publications did, that the NLNG owes the federation,” he added.
Other sources of revenue losses to the federation, according to NEITI, include crude oil theft, as it noted that the total revenue loss to the federation as a result of the problem, as well as deferred production and sabotage between 2011 and 2014 stood at $15.9bn.
It listed federation assets held by the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company as another source of revenue loss, adding that its audit reports showed that the NPDC failed to remit the sum of $5.5bn and N72.4bn comprising of outstanding payments for the Oil Mining Leases divested to it, cash calls paid by the NNPC to the company for already divested assets and legacy liabilities.
The agency also stated that based on its findings, oil swap and offshore processing agreements resulted in the loss of product value equivalent to $518m in 2013 and $198.7m in 2014.
NEITI further stated that the existence of expired Memoranda of Understanding was another source of revenue loss to the federation, and pointed out that the expired agreements had led to under-assessment of government’s share of oil revenue.
“As a result, the revenue loss to the federation stood at $599m in year 2013 alone,” it said.
