The Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency initiative (NEITI) has disclosed that Nigeria lost about $15.9 billion as a result of crude oil theft, pipeline vandalism, deferred production and sabotage between 2011 and 2014, just as about $599 million was lost in 2013 due to expired Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs). NEITI equally revealed that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) failed to remit $15.8 billion being proceeds from the sales of crude oil between 2000 and 2014 to either the Federation Account or to the Federal Government. This was contained in a statement signed by its Director of Communications, Dr. Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, in Abuja while making clarifications on the documents it presented to the House of Representatives. According to Orji, Nigeria in 2011 exported 38.6 million barrels of crude and lost $4.4 billion just like in 2012 it exported 23.8 million barrels of crude and lost $2.7 billion. In 2013, 37.7 million barrels of crude was exported and $4.7 billion was lost while in 2014, 40.2 million barrels of crude was exported and $4.1 billion was lost, bringing the total volume of crude lost to oil theft, deferred production, pipeline vandalism, and sabotage to 140.3 million barrels of crude. Making clarifications on the undeclared Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) dividends and loan repayments details, Orji said: “The NNPC, as custodian of Nigeria’s shares in the NLNG, received Nigeria’s share of NLNG dividends paid to the corporation for 15 years amounting to $15.8 billion between years 2000 and 2014. However, NEITI reports disclosed that NNPC failed to remit the proceeds to either the Federation Account or the Federal Government”. To put the records straight, NEITI maintains that NLNG paid the dividends to NNPC but NEITI has no evidence that NNPC remitted the funds to the Federation Account, correcting the impression falsely presented by some media outfit that NEITI reported to the House to Representatives that NLNG owes the federation. On the Federation Assets held by the Nigeria Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), NEITI Audit reports showed that NPDC failed to remit the sum of $5.5 billion and N72.4 billion comprising of outstanding payments for the OMLs divested to it, cash calls paid by NNPC to the NPDC for already divested assets and legacy liabilities. On Oil SWAP and Off-shore Processing Agreements, NEITI also told the Committee that the Off-shore Processing Agreements (OPAs) and the oil swaps resulted in the loss of product value equivalent to $518 million in 2013 and $198.7 million in 2014. On Expired MoUs, NEITI identified the existence of expired MoUs as another source of revenue loss to the federation, pointing out that the expired agreements have led to under-assessment of government’s share of oil revenue resulting to a revenue loss of $599 million in 2013 alone. NEITI urged the media to make proper distinction between revenues already earned but not remitted to the Federation Account and value of losses in revenues that the country would have earned if crude oil theft, pipeline vandalism, deferred production and sabotage were checked so that the public will not be misled.
