By Adedapo Adesanya
Nigeria’s state oil regulator, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, has denied that it exported 17.877 million barrels of crude oil without proper documentation in four years.
In a statement dated Wednesday, January 4, and signed by its chief corporate communications officer, Mr Garba Deen Muhammad, the NNPC said, “Our attention has been drawn to an online publication, alleging that NNPC illegally exported 17.877 million barrels of crude oil from 2016 to 2020.
The Nation Newspaper on January 2 reported that it obtained an exclusive document signed by former Auditor General of the Federation, Mr Adolphus Aghughu, alleging that 32 oil marketing companies were involved in the non-completion of the Nigeria Export Proceeds (NXP) forms.
The statement read, “The Auditor General’s report in reference did mention 32 oil marketing companies involved in the non-completion of the Nigeria Export Proceeds (NXP) forms.
“It should also be noted that NNPC does not appoint Inspection Agents as alleged, but rather, it is the sole responsibility of the Federal Ministry of Finance.
“Therefore, the general public is advised to disregard the said malicious publication and instead, visit the relevant Auditor General’s website to see the full content of the audit report and be guided accordingly.”
According to the AuGF, information obtained from Pre-Shipment Inspection Agents (PIAs) revealed that during the audit period, a total of 17,877,705 barrels of crude oil valued at $1,020,969,281.12 were exported without completion of the required NXP forms.
An audit review of the annual reports of Pre-Shipment Inspection Agents (PIA) for the period revealed that some exporters of crude oil exported without completing the required NXP form as stipulated.
According to the office of the Auditor General, the guidelines for Oil and Gas Export 2017 requires any person intending to export oil and gas and other related product from Nigeria shall, in the first instance, process the Nigeria Export Proceeds (NXP) Form and any other form so prescribed through an authorized dealer bank irrespective of the value and whether or not payment is involved.
The NNPC was also accused of appointing two PIAs and one Monitoring and Evaluation Agent (MEA) in 2017, knowing full well that President Muhammadu Buhari cancelled the appointments of all service providers in 2015.
Dipo Olowookere