The House of Representatives believes that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation did not remit a total of $81.2bn crude oil proceeds to the Federation Account in four years.
Its ad-hoc committee, which is investigating the alleged export of $17bn worth of undeclared crude oil and gas resources, has demanded explanations from the corporation.
The investigation covers the year 2011 to 2014.
Our correspondent gathered on Monday that the committee, which is chaired by a member of the All Progressives Congress from Adamawa State, Mr. Abdulrazak Namdas, 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 before coming to the conclusion.
In its set of questions sent to the NNPC, a copy of which was obtained exclusively in Abuja, the committee noted that the total receipts from crude proceeds for the four years tallied at $123.9bn.
However, lawmakers found out that the NNPC remitted only $42.7bn 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.
According to the committee, the year-by-year breakdown of the expected earnings were $33.7bn (2011); $33.2bn (2012); $29.4bn (2013); and $27.5bn (2014), totalling $123.9bn.
But, the committee said the corporation declared only $42.7bn, a figure which was confirmed by the CBN.
This was broken down into $14.3bn (2011); $10.2bn (2012); $8.4bn (2013); and $9.8bn (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.
In addition, the NNPC was asked to explain the conflicting reports by the corporation and the DPR on crude lifting from Pennington in 2011.
While the NNPC claimed that 991.4 million barrels and 960.4 million barrels were lifted in May and October, respectively, the DPR reported that there was only one lifting of 960.4 million barrels in October.
“The committee wants you (NNPC) to prove how the sale of 991.4 million barrels of crude oil was consummated,” the document added.
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