The Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has released yet another damning report on the petroleum sector with key findings on subsidy payments, crude oil theft wherein it accused the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) for disparities in subsidy payments to the tune of N175.9 billion during the year under review.
For the period under review, 2009-2011, the report claimed that Nigeria recorded a total crude oil production of over 2.5 billion barrels from which the federation earned total revenue of $143 million which runs into over N21trillion.
The report which was presented by NEITI’s chairman, Ledum Mitee on Monday, explained that the federal government made total subsidy payments of N3trillion to importers of refined petroleum products from 2009 to 2011.
But the disparity between subsidy claims paid from the federation account and the PPPRA was N175.9 billion during the same period, the report revealed.
$10.9 billion Stolen Crude Oil
It also stated that crude oil theft and deliberate sabotage remains a financial drainage for the country with over 136 million barrels estimated at $10.9 billion lost during the year under review.
The Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo Iweala had pointed out cases of non-remittances and called for a joint review of the report by all relevant agencies.
Some of the recommendations are that PPPRA should remit over N4billion arising from recovery collected into the federation account.
