… NNPC Cannot Account For $9.8B USD For The Period Under Review.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its management are stinking and deeply buried in monumental fraud and corruption, as revelations in the ongoing Senate probe continue to reveal practices of ineptitude and gross misappropriation of state wealth.
At Monday’s probe session, the management of the NNPC could not account for 65, 000 bpd from the 445,000 barrels allocated to it daily meant to be refined for domestic consumption.
The 65, 000 barrels translates to more than $7m USD daily at current crude price of $108.6 per barrel for the Brent crude.
Also, the Group Managing Director of the corporation, Mr. Austen Oniwon told the senate joint committee probing the N1.3trillion petroleum subsidy funds, that Nigeria imports refined petroleum products from neighbouring Cote d’Ivoire, Holland and England.
Giving an insight into how the NNPC distributes crude daily to refineries, Oniwon said of the 445, 000 barrels allocated to the NNPC daily, the corporation could only refine 170, 000bpd domestically at the two functional refineries in Port-Harcourt and Kaduna.
He further disclosed that 210, 000 bpd is sent abroad under a crude-for-PMS swap arrangement — 60, 000 bpd is sent to the SIR Company in Cote d’Ivoire which has an installed capacity of 80, 000bpd; 90, 000 bpd is shipped to Duke Oil Services UK, an overseas subsidiary that is wholly owned by the NNPC and another 60, 000 bpd is given to another United Kingdom based commodity trading company Trafigura.
Sadly, the GMD could not account for or give vivid details of the whereabouts of remainder 65, 000 bpd representing $210 million (N34 billion naira) monthly. The corporation could not account for $9.8 billion USD in all for the period under review. Oniwon looked embarrassed as he just could not explain what the corporation does with the 65, 000bpd.
When pressed further he admitted that between 2006 and August, 2011, the NNPC received N2.157 trillion as subsidy on petroleum products with N220 billion outstanding payments for subsidy on kerosene. Oniwon however failed to table the volume and value of PMS the NNPC received under the swap arrangement but said the records were available.
The PPPRA Executive Secretary, Reginald Elijah had earlier confirmed that refined petroleum products are imported from Cote d’Ivoire and Holland at N140 per litre as against locally refined products at N128.13 per litre.
Elijah said the government pays N75 as subsidy per litre of fuel imported into the country, saying imports come from Cote d’Ivoire and Holland.
He added that the PPPRA doesn’t provide security at private tank farms were imported petroleum products for which the government has paid subsidy are stored.
So far, the senate committee probing the subsidy on petroleum products has had three (3) sessions with the Ministers of Petroleum Resources, Finance and top management of the petroleum ministry invited in the course of the probe.
The federal government has maintained that it could not continue to support subsidizing the price of imported petroleum products.
Source: The Will/Emma Uche
