*As Corporation records $471.9m export receipts
Oscarline Onwuemenyi
06 October 2017, Sweetcrude, Abuja – The Management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Thursday, provided informed perspective to the trending media report alleging that the Corporation colluded with some banks to prevent the remittance of some funds into the Treasury Single Accounts (TSA), scheme as directed by the Federal Government.
The NNPC in a release by its Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, described the allegation as not only misplaced but equally misleading.
He said the Corporation had earlier taken steps to inform the Presidency, Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on the existence of the said accounts prior to the creation of the Federal Government Asset Recovery Account.
The NNPC explained that it would be totally out of place to move the funds to the FG Asset Recovery Account as reported noting that it is unreasonable and sheer waste of funds to pay any agent 5 percent, whistleblowing fee for the phantom recovery of genuine NNPC funds which had been disclosed to the Presidency, CBN and other relevant stakeholders.
The Corporation said that based on this superior argument, the consultant appointed by the government to investigate the alleged hidden remittances was instructed to withdraw the pending court case against some commercial entities at the Federal High Court, Lagos.
The statement explained that in line with the directive of the Presidency, the apex bank is supervising the remittance of these funds to the CBN TSA Account and it has made great strides in this regard.
The NNPC reiterated that as an entity with fiduciary responsibility to the government and people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, its commitment to transparency and accountability remains unwavering.
Meanwhile, the NNPC has announced a total export receipt of $471.90 million for the month of July 2017 as against $219.34 million posted in June 2017.
According to the July edition of the Monthly Financial and Operations Report of the Corporation which was made public on Thursday, the contribution from crude oil amounted to $392.20 million while gas and miscellaneous receipts stood at $64.72 million and $14.98 million respectively.
The report indicated that of the export receipt, $108.09 million was remitted to the Federation Account while $363.81 million was remitted to fund the Joint Venture cash call for the month of July 2017, to guarantee current and future production.
Providing a broader perspective, the report noted that the total export of crude oil and gas receipt for the period of July 2016 to July 2017 stood at $2.77 billion. Out of that, the sum of $2.31 billion was transferred to JV cash call in line with the budget and the balance of $0.46 Billion was paid to Federation Account.
The NNPC observed that the low receipt was due to the twin effects of production disruption in Niger-Delta and low crude oil prices during the period.
On naira payments to the Federation Account, the NNPC announced that the Domestic Crude Oil and Gas receipt during the month amounted to N145.83 billion, consisting of N5.56 billion from Domestic Gas and the sum of N140.27 billion from Domestic Crude Oil.
It was noted that out of the naira receipt, the sum of N56.30 billion was transferred to Joint Venture Cash Call (JVCC) being a first line charge and to guarantee continuous flow of revenue stream to Federation Account.
In all, the Federation Crude Oil and Gas liftings are broadly classified into Equity Export and Domestic. Both categories are lifted and marketed by NNPC and the proceeds remitted into the Federation Account.
Equity Export receipts, after revision for Joint Venture (JV) Cash Calls, are paid directly into Federation Account domiciled in Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Domestic crude oil of 445,000 barrels per day is allocated for refining to meet domestic products supply. Payments are effected to Federation Account by NNPC after adjusting crude & product losses and pipeline repairs & management cost incurred during the period.
The Corporation also lifts crude oil and gas, other than equity and domestic crude oil, on behalf of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS), proceeds of which are remitted into Federation Account.
The Third Party finance liftings are Crude Oil and Gas liftings from fields that are financed using alternative finance/loan facility which require the servicing of debt obligations before remitting the balance into the Federation Account.
