NGO calls for probe of Nigeria’s oil sales
An NGO, Natural Resources Governance Institute (NRGI), on Sunday urged the Federal Government to critically look into the nation’s oil sales in order to address revenue leakages.
This is contained in a statement issued on Sunday in Bwari, Federal Capital Territory, by the NGO’s Director of Communications, Mr Lee Bailey.
The statement, which noted that oil sales had constituted Nigeria’s biggest source of revenue, added that the management of the process had worsened in recent years.
It said that based on the NGO’s findings, a single swap contract could have cost the previous government the sum of $16. 09. per barrel of oil in a year.
According to the statement, the emergence of a new government and the current budgetary shortfalls offer Nigeria its best chance to overhaul NNPC’s oil sales.
Everyone from trading companies to Nigerian citizens are waiting to see how the new government will approach these transactions, including the allocation of new exports or swap contracts.
Our research maps the current state of play and we suggest what issues reformers in Nigeria ought to urgently address,” the statement said.
The statement said measures should be put in place to curb revenue leakages, select oil buyers through competitive rather than political processes, and change of NNPC’s swap agreement.
It claimed that NNPC sold approximately one million barrels of oil a day, adding that some oil buyers were unqualified intermediaries who added little or no value to the deals.
The statement also claimed that from its findings, several contracts, including oil-for-fuel swap agreements, were opaque and contained unbalanced terms.
Records indicate that NNPC retained an estimated $12.3 billion from the sale of 110 million barrels of oil for more than 10 years from a single block controlled by a subsidiary.
In 2013, the treasury received only 58 per cent of the value of the $16.8 billion worth of oil NNPC had earmarked from its underperforming refineries,” the statement said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that NRGI is an NGO committed to promoting accountability and effective governance in the oil industry.
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4 Comments
A most fundamental and commonsensical request to help consolidate and test the ongoing campaign against corruption
Good..did this NGO not read that all revenue yielding agencies account would be audited? and the award of that audit have been given
Nigeria is not a country but a battle ground for looters, where looting competition is done who loots the highest From IBB to Abacha , OBJ, Tinubu etc. Who cares? It seems hatred on Jonathan made
people to care a little
To be honest, I wonder where this NGO was three years ago, if we are to believe the statement that the management of oil sales has worsened in the past few years. Did they advocate for the PIB as a method of improving the management or did they stand by doing nothing? The irony is that the previous administration tried to do something to streamline these processes, only to be rebuffed by the senate and others. Now we have this claim that the previous administration mismanaged oil sales and people wondering why it didn’t do anything about it. What a farce!
We will review and take appropriate action.