22 November 2013, Abuja – The House of Representatives on Thursday ordered another round of investigation into crude oil sales and remittances by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.
The focus of the fresh investigation is on the “volume and value of crude oil sales and remittances” by the corporation from January 2013 to date.
The investigation, which will last four weeks, is to be conducted by an ad-hoc committee of the House.
The resolution of the House followed a motion moved by Mr. Haruna Manu, who raised the alarm that about $13.9bn crude oil revenue could not be accounted for by the NNPC.
Manu, who quoted from statistics allegedly generated by the NNPC, told the House that the value for crude oil sales from January to August stood at $20.9bn.
He, however, said only $7bn was remitted to the Federation Account by the corporation.
Manu added that “this shows that $13.9bn is not accounted for and it raises questions about how it was spent.”
He claimed that from September to date, the corporation had not given an account of crude oil sales.
Contributing to the debate, the Chairman, House Committee on Public Affairs, Mr. Adeola Olamilekan, recalled that the issue of accounting for crude oil sales by the NNPC had been on for the last seven years without a solution.
He said, “One of the areas of concern is the NNPC’s Joint Venture operations.
“There are several billions of dollars that are unaccounted for.
“Some JV partners will come before the committee and give you information that the NNPC cannot contradict.”
“Now, when you confront NNPC with this information, they don’t address the issues at stake.
“Reports from the Auditor-General’s Office have many cases against the NNPC.
“When this investigation is being conducted, I urge the ad-hoc committee to liaise with the Public Accounts Committee.
“We have information we can give to the committee to assist the investigation.”
A second resolution the House passed on the oil sector sought to investigate the impact of the discovery of Shale Gas on Nigeria’s dwindling crude oil revenue.
The Acting Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, NNPC, Ms. Tumini Green, could not be reached to comment on the allegations made in the report.
Calls made to her mobile telephone line did not go through, while text messages sent to the same number were not replied as of the time of going to press.
However, a source who spoke with our correspondent under the condition of anonymity, said even if $20.9bn crude oil had been sold, international oil companies in Joint Ventures with the NNPC also had their shares of the money.
The Punch
