NEITI says NNPC should be made to account for N5.15tr

The Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) on Friday released its 2015 Oil and Gas Industry Audit Report with various revelations and recommendations.

NEITI’s main recommendations in the report is that the Federal Government should ask the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to fully account for over $16.8 billion (about N5.15 trillion at N306.3 to $1) collected as dividends since the inception of the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) in 2000.

The report released in Abuja on Friday also revealed that Nigeria’s oil and gas revenues dropped from $54.5 billion in 2014 to $24.8 billion in 2015.

Other highlights of the report stated that Nigeria’s oil production capacity fell from a total 798 million barrels in 2014 to 776 million barrels in 2015, even as it also revealed that total outstanding revenue from the sector as at 2015 stood at about $3.7 billion and N80 billion, with losses incurred at $2.2 billion and N60 billion, while unreconciled revenues amounted to about N317 billion.

NEITI Executive Secretary, Mr. Waziri Adio, speaking on the report said that beyond the snapshots of what transpired in 2015, the latest report revealed monies to be recovered from different agencies, apart from recommendations on leakages to be blocked, and urgent reforms to be undertaken.

“The most critical take-away is the need to expedite, expand and sustain reforms in this still critical sector of national life,” he stressed.