• Senate probes alleged unremitted $5.6b
by NNPC, NPDC
• Reps investigate oil firms over N500
billion debt
Nigeria loses an estimated $1billion (about
N305 billion) in revenue every year due to
the falsification of gas flare data, the Minister
of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe
Kachikwu, has revealed.
The minister spoke yesterday in Abuja at a
gas competence seminar with the theme
‘Towards ending gas flaring and unlocking
gas potential in Nigeria.” He hinted that the
Federal Government would set up an
independent tracking mechanism in 2017 to
ascertain the actual volume of gas that was
flared in the country.
“My take is that we lose over half a billion to
a billion of government revenue looking at
the basis of the present penalties position.
Nobody is effectively monitoring the volume,
so when you actually go for the real effect of
what is flared, in terms of statistics, it is
much higher than those figures. However, we
must appreciate the efforts that have been
made in the past to increase penalties, among
others,” Kachikwu said.
According to the minister, there is an urgent
need for the country to devise a policy that
will be targeted at eliminating gas flaring.
“Beginning next year, we will be putting up
an independent tracking mechanism, not
relying on figures from the IOCs and from
the Department of Petroleum Resources
(DPR) to find out what really is the flare
volume. My feeling is that there is a lot of
management of those figures to suit the cap
of the penalties that are being charged,” he
said.
In a related development, the Senate
yesterday began an investigation into an
alleged non-remittance of $5.6 billion by the
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation
(NNPC) and one of its subsidiaries, the
Nigerian Petroleum Development Company
(NPDC).
Adopting a motion sponsored by Dino Melaye
(APC- Kogi West), the Senate alleged that
from 2013 to date, the NPDC has continued to
lift crude oil from divested wells OML 61, 62
and 63 worth over $3.487billion without
remitting the money to the Federation
Account.
The upper legislative chamber therefore
mandated its committees on Petroleum
Upstream and Finance to investigate the
allegation with a view to recovering the
money due to the Federation Account.
The lawmakers also mandated the NNPC and
NPDC to immediately remit monies obtained
on behalf of the Federal Government to the
Federation Account upon lifting.
After the motion was passed, Senate
President Abubakar Bukola Saraki said: “We
must put an end to this level of
misappropriation and recklessness. This must
stop. I believe that this committee has a duty
to ensure that it works very hard to get to
the bottom of this. Even more worrisome is
the fact that they did it in the last
administration and now they are carrying out
the same practice again. We must put an end
to this, we cannot continue with a situation
where some people are sabotaging the
efforts to fight corruption.”
Also yesterday, the House of Representatives
commenced an investigation of key oil
companies which are allegedly indebted to
the country to the tune of over N500 billion.
The marketers allegedly involved in the huge
indebtedness are Oando, Forte Oil, Total Oil,
Conoil, Masters Energy Oil and Gas Ltd.
Others are MRS Oil and Gas, Heyden
Petroleum, Rahamaniyya Petroleum,
Amicable Petroleum, Aiteo Petroleum,
Honeywell Oil, Capital Oil, Felande
Petroleum, Sharon Oil and Zamson
Petroleum.
The Speaker of the House, Mr. Yakubu
Dogara, who inaugurated the Abdullahi Gaya
led ad-hoc committee justified the move,
saying it was aimed at plugging the loopholes
in existing laws and practices in the
downstream sector of the economy.
Represented by the Chief Whip, Mr. Ado
Doguwa, the speaker said: “We expect that in
no distant future, the committee will be
inviting some companies and individuals to
provide answers to questions as to what
happened to the downstream sector. We
hope that this committee will conduct its
affairs in a serious and corruption-free
manner as the House will not tolerate any
evidence of undue influence or improper
conduct.”
Gaya who reechoed the speaker’s position
said the hearing underlined the resolve by
the lower legislative chamber to return the
country to the path of economic prosperity
The House had adopted a motion sponsored
by Mr. Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe (Ogoja/Yala
Federal Constituency of Cross River State) on
the urgent need to investigate the huge debts
owed the Petroleum Products Marketing
Company (PPMC) by some major and
independent oil marketers.
Jarigbe had alleged that “there is a
connivance and compromise by functionaries
of PPMC to leave government funds in the
hands of these marketers, thereby putting the
country in dire financial straits.”
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Source: Guardian ng
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