The Auditor-General of the Federation has raised an alarm on domestic crude oil lifted by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and not accounted for in 2019.
Recall that the Federal Government’s 2019 Budget of N8.83 trillion was largely financed by debts, which currently stands at N35.5 trillion as of June 30.
According to a report conducted by an organisation, “Dataphyte’, using NNPC-NAPIMS audited annual report and the latest audit report, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, (NNPC), reportedly failed to account for 104.48 million barrels of domestic crude oil it lifted in 2019.
Dataphyte established that in 2019, NNPC lifted a total of 107.24 million barrels as domestic crude, out of which it only accounted for 2.76 million barrels.
According to the Auditor-General’s report, it noted that 2.76 million barrels allocated to the domestic refineries were valued at N55.89 billion.
The Auditor-General noted that information about the whereabouts or sales of the remaining 104.48 million barrels of crude oil was not provided.
The 104.48 million of oil missing from the audit report when calculated to the average price of petrol of $64.3 per barrel comes to about $6.64 billion(N2.7 trillion).
The report showed that the Auditor-General requested an explanation for the missing crude oil but no response was given.
This consequently raised the fear that the unaccounted barrels of the domestic crude or the money from its sales may have been diverted.
The Auditor-General said, “Information on Sale of un-Utilised Crude oil by Refineries for 2019 was not provided, and Information on crude oil allocations from 30th May to 31st December 2019 was not provided for scrutiny”.
The audit report also noted that due to lack of explanation it could mean diversion of domestic crude, diversion of sale of un-utilised crude, and also Loss of Federation Account revenue.
Dataphyte report also showed a similar situation played out in 2011 when NNPC was unable to account for 65,000 barrels of crude out of the 445,000 barrels allocated to it daily, costing the country the sum of N1.033 billion daily and N31.005 billion monthly.
Stakeholders have pointed out that the missing crude oil, if it was sold, could have saved the Federal Government from more borrowing as well as also help in the funding of critical infrastructures in the country.
As of June 30, 2021, Nigeria’s debt stood at N35.5 trillion and the missing crude could have helped reduce the burden.
