The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has denied unofficially exporting 17.8 million barrels of crude oil between 2016 and 2020, worth about $1.021 billion.
The denial follows allegation by the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation (OAuGF) that 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 about $1.021 billion were exported without completion of the required NXP forms.
The NXP forms reveal details of goods to be exported and facilitate tracking of export proceeds into the exporter’s domiciliary account in Nigeria.
But a statement by NNPC’s spokesperson, Garba Deen Muhammad, denied any wrongdoing, thereby opening the year with another round of claims and counter-claims between agencies similar to those that trailed allegations of fraud regarding the quantities of crude supposedly stolen by oil thieves with attendant humongous loss of revenue to the government last year.
As far as the NNPC is concerned, the audit review did not say that the value of the oil exported was not remitted into the Federation Account.
Besides, it added, the Federal Ministry of Finance has more questions to answer, since it is solely responsible for the appointment of PIAs
The guidelines for Oil and Gas Export 2017 requires any person intending to export oil and gas and other related products from Nigeria shall, in the first instance, process the NXP Form and any other form so prescribed through an authorized dealer bank irrespective of the value and whether or not payment is involved.
Audit review
The OAuGF alleged that an audit review of the annual reports of PIAs for the four-year period revealed that some exporters of crude oil exported without completing the required Nigeria Export Proceeds (NXP) form as stipulated.
The OAuGF noted that the guidelines for Oil and Gas Export 2017 requires any person intending to export oil and gas and other related products from Nigeria shall, in the first instance, process the NXP Form and any other form so prescribed through an authorized dealer bank irrespective of the value and whether or not payment is involved.
It also accused the NNPC of appointing two PIAs and one Monitoring and Evaluation Agent (MEA) in 2017, despite the fact that President Muhammadu Buhari had cancelled the appointments of all service providers in 2015.
NNPC’s defence
But the NNPC in a statement on Wednesday dismissed the account of an online publication of the audit report, describing it as “malicious”.
The statement reads: “Our attention has been drawn to an online publication, alleging that NNPC exported 17.877 million barrels of crude oil without proper documentation in four years (from 2016 to 2020).
“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. But that does not in any way mean that the proceeds from the sale of the said crude were not repatriated into the coffers of NNPC and consequently into the Federation Accounts for Federation related barrels.
“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.”
