Nigeria lost $10.9b oil to theft in two years – NEITI

Nigeria lost over $10.9 billion worth of crude oil to oil thieves between 2009 and 2011, the National Extractive Industries Transparency Initiatives has said.
The Chairman of the Board of NEITI, Ledum Mitee, who disclosed this on Monday, also revealed that within the period under review, the country was only able to process 2.5 billion barrels officially.
Mitee, at the presentation of the audit report on the oil and gas industry, covering 2009 to 2011, equally revealed that some oil marketers were still holding onto the country’s N4.4 trillion.
According to Mitee, total financial flows from oil and gas between 2009 and 2011 was $143.516 billion.
He gave the breakdown as: Sales of Crude Oil and Gas, including export crude, domestic, gas, royalty on oil – $81.970 billion; other speciic flows including petroleum profit tax, gas flaring penalties, concenssion rentals- $45.708 billion; other flows to Federation Account, including companies income tax, Value Added Tax – $49.791 billion; other flows including dividens and repayments of loans and withholding tax – $6.944 billion; flows to states – $1.569 billion; and flows to other entities, including contributions to Niger Delta Development Commission, Education Tax – $3.241 billion.
Mitee said at the presentation, which was ongoing as at the time of filing this report, that NEITI was not out to look for scape goats but to work closely with the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation on how to sanitise the oil and gas sector for the country to benefit maximally from it.
He said the audit, carried out by an indigenous firm, Sada Idris & Co, equally revealed that N4.4 trillon was yet to be recovered from oil marketers.
Among the recommendations of NEITI are: urgent review of existing agreements with players in the oil and gas industry; construction of refineries through private sector participation; the recovery by the PPRA of N4.4 trillion from oil marketers; and installation of metering devices to measure production.
More details soon.