Nigeria’s gas production for 2015 rose by 20.23 pct – NEITI
The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) on Friday said the nation’s gas production rose by 20.23 per cent in 2015.
NEITI said this in Abuja in its audit-covered operations in the country’s oil and gas industry for the period of 2015.
According to the report, the country’s gas production rose by 20.23 per cent from 2,593,090 million standard cubic feet (mmscf) in 2014 to 3,250, 667 mmscf in 2015.
This, it stated, was supported by the combined effect of increased gas utilisation and decline in gas flaring.
“NNPC’s liftings were split almost evenly between federation export and domestic crude allocation, which accounted for 159.4 million barrels and 153.9 million barrels, respectively.
“However, only 8.7 million barrels or 5.6 per cent of crude oil allocated for domestic consumption went to the refineries in 2015 on account of the state of the refineries,’’ the reports stated.
However, the report equally said that the status of a $16.8 billion dividend paid by the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG) to the NNPC for the federation over 16 years was still unknown.
The organisation asked the corporation to clarify the alleged mix-up.
“In 2015, the 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 per cent stake that the government holds in the company.
“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,’’ the report read in part.
NNPC maintains that it has authorisation from the presidency to hold the dividends in trust and utilise as directed by the government.
NEITI recommended that NNPC should provide documentary evidence of the authorisation to hold the money in trust and to give account of the expenditure from 2000 and the status of the $16.8 billion collected in 16 years.
On crude oil theft and product losses, NEITI said the volume of crude oil declared loss to theft by 13 operators in 2015 was 27.1 million barrels, valued at $1.4 billion.
It said a subsidiary of the NNPC, the Pipeline and Product Marketing Company (PPMC), also declared loss of crude worth $25 million, to bring the total declared losses to $1.45 billion.
“This brings the established loss to theft from 2011 to 2015 to a total of 113.1 million barrels valued at $11 billion.
“Also, PPMC declared losing products worth ₦56.4 billion, broken down as follows: ₦52 billion for losses on petrol, ₦3.8 billion for losses on diesel, and ₦123 million for losses on kerosene.
“Deferred production on account of sabotage or repairs came to 57 million barrels,” it stated.
It reported that Nigeria recorded a net loss of $723 million from getting refined products through Offshore Processing Arrangement (OPA) during the period.
The report said despite its disbandment in November 2015 for being uneconomical, there was an outstanding liability of $498 million by companies contracted under OPA from under-delivery of imported products.
Based on its claims of inefficiencies in the OPA, NEITI recommended that the Direct Sale Direct Purchase (DSDP) arrangement which replaced it should be closely monitored to ensure the country was not losing from its application.
It said the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) was still owing the country the balance of $1.7 billion from its takeover of eight Oil Mining Leases (OMLs) from the Shell JV between 2010 and 2011.
According to NEITI, the report which is its eighth edition, was approved for release by its National Stakeholders Working Group chaired by the Minister for Mines and Steel Development, Dr Kayode Fayemi.
It said a Nigerian accounting and audit firm, Haruna Yahaya & Co., selected for the job had submitted the report.
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