The report was laid before the House by the chairman of the House Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream), Ikeagwuonu Ugochinyere.
This followed the adoption of a motion jointly sponsored by Ugochinyere and the Chairman, the Committee on Petroleum Resources (upstream), Alhassan Ado-Doguwa.
After receiving the report, the House mandated its committees on Petroleum Resources (upstream and downstream) to investigate alleged misappropriation of oil revenue, shoddy contracts, and extra-budgetary expenditure by the relevant ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) of the Federal Government. The committee is expected to report back within eight weeks for further legislative actions.
Ugochinyere, before laying it, said the 2021 NEITI Oil and Gas report presentation came at a time the government needed to block all revenue leakages, retrieve all debts owed to it by oil companies within the sectors, as well as improve its income generation.
The lawmaker, who represents Ideato North/ South federal constituency, said since the enactment of the NEITI Act in 2004, no session of the House of Representatives has ever received and debated the report of NEITI, as required by Section 4(3) of the Act.
However, he expressed displeasure “that the 2021 Oil and Gas report disclosed a rise in the number of unremitted revenues to the federation to the tune of $9.85 billion and a total crude oil and gas revenue of $23.046 billion, signaling a 13 percent increase from the total of $20.430 billion realized in 2020.
According to the NEITI report, “the not remitted revenues consist of $278.813 million earned by the federation from trial marketing under the First Exploration and Production JV, $7.61 million from OML 116 operated by Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) and $5.85 billion proceeds from the sales of domestic crude oil, including about $871.15 million not remitted crude oil sales.
“Fifty four companies accounted for a total metered crude oil production of 634.60 million barrels. Out of this, 68.47 million barrels were lost to production adjustments, measurement error and theft sabotage, leaving a balance of 566.13 million barrels.
“Furthermore, the total outstanding taxes payable to Federal Inland Revenue Service as at July 31, 2023, was US$13.591million while the total amount of outstanding Federation revenue payable to NUPRC as of December 31, 2022 stood at US$8.251 billion.
“For downstream operations, NEITI reported that the volume of PMS imported in 2021 under the Direct Sale Direct Purchase arrangement based on Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited’s records was significantly different from the volume of PMS imported as per Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority records which indicates there is no independent third-party confirmation of product importation volume and subsidy value.”
Sequel to the adoption of a motion by Ademorin Kuye, calling for an investigation into the financial interventions in the power sector amounting to trillions of naira, the House also resolved to investigate all financial interventions in the power sector since privatization of the sector in 2013.
It mandated its Committees on Power, Privatisation, and Commercialisation and Finance to undertake the probe and report back within six weeks for further legislative action.
This was a sequel to the adoption of a motion by Ademorin Kuye, calling for an investigation into “the financial interventions in the power sector amounting to trillions of naira. “
Kuye, in his lead debate, informed the House that the Federal Government, in 2013, unbundled the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), and “sold 18 utility firms to private investors resulting in six generation companies (GenCos) and 11 distribution companies (DisCos).”
The lawmaker said the privatization, notwithstanding, the Federal Government has spent over N7 trillion as direct interventions in the power sector, among others.
Source- Sun Newspaper.