NNPC Should Give Account Of $16.8bn NLNG Dividends – NEITI

The Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) on Friday, December 29 released its 2015 Oil and Gas Industry Audit Report.

In the report, which was signed by the Director of Communications, Dr Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, the group made different recommendations, one of which is a demand for the Federal Government to give account of over $16.8 billion collected as dividends since the inception of the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) in 2000.

“In 2015, the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG) paid $1.07 billion as dividend, interest and loan repayment to NNPC, broken down as follows: $1.04 billion as dividends, $3.1 million as interests, and $29.1 million as loan repayment.

“This brings to a total of $16.8 billion NLNG’s payments to NNPC for the period 2000 to 2015. The payments are for the loan grant to NLNG and for the 49% stake that the government holds in the company,” the statement read in part.

NEITI in the statement said further that while NNPC has always confirmed receipt of the payments, it has never shown evidence of remittance to either the Federal Government or to the Federation Account.

NEITI therefore recommended that NNPC should provide documentary evidence of the authorisation to hold the money in trust and to give account of the expenditure from and the status of the $16.8 billion collected in 16 years.

The report also revealed that Nigeria’s oil and gas revenues dropped from $54.5 billion in 2014 to $24.8 billion in 2015 and that Nigeria’s oil production capacity fell from a total 798 million barrels in 2014 to 776 million barrels in 2015.

The report showed 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.