Nigeria’s Auditor General Reveals 107 Million Barrels of Crude Oil Missing in 2019

The audit report of the Auditor General for the Federation has revealed that the defunct Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC) failed to account for about 107,239,436.00 barrels of crude oil lifted for domestic consumption in 2019.

The disclosure formed part of six audit queries from the Auditor General for the Federation as contained in the Federal Government of Nigeria consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2019, submitted to the Clerk of the National Assembly via a letter dated August 18th, 2021, and signed by the Auditor General, Adolphus Aghughu.

The report stated that records from performance report of two depots revealed that about 22,929.84 litres of premium motor spirit (PMS) valued at N7.06 billion pumped to the two depots (Ibadan-Ilorin and Aba-Enugu) between June and July 2019 were not received by the depots.

The report identified discrepancies between the amount reported by the NNPC as transfer to the federations account and what was reported by the Accountant General of the Federation.

It also stated that while the NNPC’s records showed that N1,272,606,864,000.00 was transferred by then corporation, the amount recorded by the Accountant General of the federation was N608,710,292,773.44, showing a discrepancy of N663,896,567,227.58.

The AuGF therefore stated the Group Managing Director of the NNPC should be asked to explain the discrepancy between the two figures and remit the balance of N663,896,567,227.58 to the Federations Account for face sanction.

The report stated that the sum of N519,922,433,918.46 was transferred to the Federation Account by the NNPC based on transfer mandates, while demanding that the company provide reconciliation statement for the difference of N88,787,862,853.96 between AGF’s figure of N608,710,296,772.42 and NNPC’s figure per transfer mandate of N519,922,433,918.46.

It stated: “Audit observed that 107,239,436.00 barrels of crude oil were lifted as domestic crude, while allocation of crude oil to refineries for a billing date of 9th January to 29th May 2019 was 2,764,267.00 bbls valued at N55,891,009,960.63.

“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 Group Managing Director of NNPC is requested to provide the complete schedule of allocation of Crude Oil to Refineries from 1st January to 31st December, 2019, furnish details of sale of unutilised crude oil and reconcile it with total domestic crude oil of 107,239,436.00 bbls lifted in 2019 and remit amount realized from sale of unutilised crude oil to the Federation Account.”

The report noted further that section 162(1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) states “The Federation shall maintain a special account to be called “the Federation Account” into which shall be paid all revenues collected by the Government of the Federation, except the proceeds of the personal income tax of the personnel of the armed forces of the Federation, the Nigeria Police Force, the Ministry or department charged with the responsibility of Foreign Affairs and the residents of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.”

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