The Nigerian National petroleum company limited, NNPC LTD and forty seven other oil and gas companies have been reported to be indebted to the Nigerian federal government to a cumulative sum of 8.2billion U.S dollars .
The disclosure was made in Abuja Monday in the Nation’s federal capital territory , during the unveiling of the Nigeria extractive industries transparency initiative, NEITI 2021 oil and gas industry report by the executive secretary of the extractive body Orji ogbonnaya Orji.
Orji while giving a further break down of the debt sums to government by the NNPC LTD and the other 47 companies, noted that the NNPC LTD is indebted to the tune of 6.9 billion U. S dollars in default of several payment platforms to government, while the cumulative sums by the other 47 companies amounted to 1.3billion U.S dollars in approximation.
The report which also captures a total sum of 13.2 billion dollars as total revenue accruing to the federal government from the oil and gas sector in the year under revenue translating to 57.2%, also indicated that crude oil production within same period stood at 566,129 billion barrels as at the end of 2021, with gas production standing at 2,743,700,32cft.
Under the year in review, two licenses and leases were granted according to the report, with Damas petrochemical and refinery, cadence capital limited and general hydrocarbon limited as beneficiaries.
An approximate sum of 1,159,183,273 naira was spent on fuel subsidy payment in 2021 between March and December, with a total of 69 oil and gas companies and the NLNG captured in the oil and gas segment of the report, which seeks to establish the level of the companies compliance to existing regulations bordering on transparency and accountability in the cause of their day to day operations.
While reacting to the content of the report on Monday, chairman senate committee on oil and gas, host communities, Benson Agadaga, and his counterpart in the federal house of representatives, Ugo Chinyere, noted that the National Assembly will ensure the full implementation of the report, while also promising that companies who have in the cause of their operations undermined due process would be punished accordingly.
Ugo chinyere particularly wondered why companies including the NNPC LTD would be indebted to government in huge sums of payment defaults at a critical time when the challenge of government has been on how to generate funds for infrastructure development.
The key highlights of the report according to ogbonnaya Orji, is to ensure NEITI’s continued commitment to transparency and accountability with a view to helping critical stakeholders comply with best practice benchmarks based on Eiti standards.
The official unveiling of the report was done by the secretary to the federal government, George Akume who was ably represented by a permanent secretary in his office.
