Nigeria received gross revenues of 571.7 billion naira in February, lower than the previous month’s revenues of 651.3 billion naira, owing to delayed oil revenues and lower production caused by pipeline vandalism, the accountant general said on Thursday.

Accountant General Jonah Otunla said the fall was partly owing to delays in February oil revenues equal to about $340 million that were paid in early March, but partly because of pipeline vandalism that had hurt exports at Nigeria’s main Bonny, Forcados and Brass terminals.

He said 888.4 billion naira would be distributed to Nigeria’s three tiers of government — federal, state and local — in March and that $8.06 billion remained in the Excess Crude Account, where Africa’s top producer keeps its oil savings.

Royal Dutch Shell on March 4 complained of “unprecedented” oil theft that it said had occurred around the end of January in its Nembe Creek pipeline, which is one of the major routes feeding the Bonny terminal.

A day later, it declared force majeure on the Nigerian Bonny Light crude oil grade because of a major leak in the pipeline.

“Production (crude oil) was equally hampered by pipeline vandalism at Bonny, Forcados and Brass terminals,” Otunla said.

The Finance Ministry said last year that up to a fifth of its oil revenues are lost to oil thieves.

Source: Reuters