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The Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), yesterday, accused the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, and other oil and gas companies of shortchanging the country and failing to remit $4.4 billion and N358.3 billion to the Federation Account in 2013.
This comes as Lagos-based indigenous chartered accounting firm, SIAO Partners, had been contracted by NEITI to carry out the 2014 audit, even as it is in the process of procuring auditors for its 2015 audit.
Minister of Solid Minerals and Chairman of NEITI Board, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, who disclosed this in Abuja, during the release of the 2013 Oil & Gas and Solid Minerals’ Audit Reports, also revealed that Nigeria lost $5.966 billion and N20.4 billion in 2013 to crude oil theft, Offshore Processing Agreement, OPA, and Crude Oil for Product Swap Arrangement. Oil, gas earnings.
The NEITI report further stated that the country earned $58.07 billion from oil and gas sector, dropping eight per cent from $62.9 billion realised in 2012, adding that the sum was earned from crude oil sales, taxes, royalties and other incomes. Explaining the decline in oil and gas earnings in the year under review, NEITI attributed this to a drop in oil and gas sales, following divestment of federation equity in some oil assets and crude oil losses.
In addition, the report noted that N33.86 billion accrued to the federation from the solid minerals sector in 2013. Broken down further, cement manufacturing companies accounted for N30.47 billion or 89.98 per cent of the total; construction companies, N1.98 billion or 5.83 per cent and; mining & quarrying companies, N1.42 billion or 4.19 per cent respectively.
Giving a breakdown of the figures in the oil and gas report, Fayemi said NNPC and its sub-units failed to remit $3.8 billion and N358.3 billion in 2013, while $599.98 million was under-assessments/underpayments of petroleum profit taxes and royalties by oil and gas companies.
In the case of the NNPC and its sub-units, the report stated that outstanding payments were due from unpaid considerations from divested Oil Mining Leases, OMLs, cash call refunds from the National Petroleum Investment Management Services, NAPIMS; and Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, NPDC, liftings from Nigerian Agip Oil Company, NAOC, Joint Venture, JV, among others.
