The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has accused the Central Bank Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, of having no knowledge of the structure of remittances of crude oil proceeds.
This is in response to the allegation by the apex bank governor that NNPC has failed to remit 48.9 billion dollars oil proceeds from January 2012 to July 2013 into the Federation Account.
Despite being one of the major agencies with which the national corporation meets monthly over the crude oil value chain, the NNPC said that the CBN governor’s allegation was as a result of lack of understanding of crude oil revenue remittances structure.
The Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mr Andrew Yakubu said that the NNPC was by statutory requirement responsible for direct remittances of only one stream of crude oil lifting – the equity crude, which represents about 27.5 per cent of the entire lifting.
“The four other streams including the royalty oil, tax oil, volume for third party financing and NPDC equity volume are paid to other agencies which in turn remit to the government,” Mr Yakubu explained.
The Group Managing Director said that the NNPC had remitted all proceeds statutorily required of the corporation.
An online news medium, SaharaReporters, had reported on Monday that the Governor of the CBN, Mr. Lamido Sanusi, had written to President Goodluck Jonathan complaining about the failure of the NNPC to remit the said amount to the Federation Account in contravention of extant laws.
However, in a statement issued on Thursday by its Director, Corporate Communications, Ugochukwu Okoroafor, the CBN said that while it would neither confirm nor deny the origin of the letter, it was natural for it to show concern at the low level of deposits to reserves and the Excess Crude Account in spite of strong international oil prices.
“The CBN is statutorily mandated to establish price stability, protect the external value of our national currency, manage the external reserves of the federation and ensure the smooth running of our financial system as well as being an adviser to the President on economic matters.
“The capacity of the bank to perform its role effectively is strengthened or undermined by the extent to which the nation is able to increase foreign exchange earnings and savings from these earnings, thus boosting the excess crude savings account.
Also reacting to the supposed letter by the Central Bank Governor and the standoff with the NNPC, a civil society activist, Eze Onyekpere, said that there is a lot of fraud, severe manipulation and obscurity in the way NNPC remits oils proceeds.
“The president must take the allegations of its chief banker seriously,” he said.
His views correspond with the views of many critics who have questioned the structure in the crude oil sector where it is alleged that only the NNPC understood how things operate.
The ceaseless accusations trailing the corporation’s operations have further intensified the push for the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill, to ensure transparency, a view strongly supported by the CBN in its statement.