Senate begins probing unrepatriated oil, gas, non-oil export proceeds

The Senate has began probing crude oil and gas and non-oil export proceeds unrepatriated since the inspection of the Export Act from 1996 to 2019.

The upper chamber also mandated its committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions to ascertain why relevant government agencies kept on having conflicting data of same product value published in Nigeria on one hand while those published by OPEC were different.

The resolutions were sequel to a motion on “Need to investigate pre-shipment inspection of export activities in Nigeria with respect to non-repatriation of crude oil export proceeds in line with pre-shipment inspection of export Act CAP-P26 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004, vis-à-vis challenges posed by global COVID-19 pandemic.”

The motion was sponsored by Sen. Yusuf Yusuf (APC-Taraba) during Wednesday’s plenary.

Moving the motion, the senator said that the pre-shipment inspection of export was the inspection of goods (oil and non-oil) in Nigeria prior to the shipment of those goods outside Nigeria as provided under the pre-shipment inspection of export Act CAP-P26 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004.

“The period prior to the pre-shipment inspection of export enactment, export of crude oil and gas was characterised by under valuation and delays in issuance of invoices and payments for goods, sometimes up to 120 days.”

The resolutions of the upper chamber were unanimously adopted by the senators after voice votes by President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan.

Meanwhile, the Senate President Ahmad Lawan said that the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) would be considered for second reading in two weeks.

“We have asked for copies to be made and I want to believe that almost everyone has a copy.

“So we study this bill, it’s so critical, it’s so important and then we take the second reading in two weeks so that we have sufficient time to go through the bill.

” It’s a big bill and it is a crucial bill,” Lawan said.