Alleged $2.4bn revenue loss: Reps probe sale of crude oil from 2014

THE House of Representatives on Tuesday unveiled plans to investigate the alleged loss of over $2.4 billion in revenue accruing from illegal sale of 48 million barrels of crude oil export in 2015, including crude oil exports from 2014 till date.

The lawmakers also re- solved to constitute an ad-hoc committee that will invest- igate the whistleblower‘s al- legations of the illegal sale of 48 million barrels of Nigeria’s Bonny Light crude in China in 2015 and the insurance status of the cargo.

The resolution was passed following to the adoption of a motion sponsored by Hon- ourable Isiaka Ibrahim.

In his lead debate, Honour- able Ibrahim, who called for the House intervention, stressed the need to recover the fund in line with extant laws.

He said: “The House is aware of allegations by a whistleblower in July 2020 that he had in July 2015 and in response to the current administration‘s whis- tleblower policy brought to the attention of a committee purportedly set up by the President for the recovery of missing crude oil exports, the existence of 48 million barrels of Nigeria’s Bonny Light crude oil in storage at several ports in China ostensibly un- der the authorization of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the intention of parties in China and the NNPC to sell this cargo.

“The House is also aware that the whistleblower claimed that the commit- tee, which comprised very high-ranking officials of the administration and NNPC (some of whom he held meetings with) carried out an investigation and con- firmed the existence of this cargo, but he discovered in October 2015 that the sale of this cargo had been initi- ated through unofficial chan- nels and the eventual refusal of the committee to honour their agreement to pay five percent value of the cargo in line with the terms of the whistleblower policy.

“The House is worried by the allegations that the en- tire cargo of 48 million bar- rels of Bonny Light Crude was sold without the pro- ceeds being remitted to the coffers of the country, which translated to a loss to the Nigerian state of over $2.4 billion considering the 2015 global average crude oil price of $52 per barrel.

“The House is concerned that more than two years after these allegations came to the fore and the uncer- tainty surrounding the re- quired insurance of these crude exports, it becomes imperative that the House needs to ascertain the ac- tual details of all previous crude exports from Nigeria from 2014 till date with re- gard to quantity, sale, insur- ance, revenue generated, payment into the Federation Account and how these pro- ceeds were utilised.”

To this end, the House mandated the ad-hoc com- mittee to investigate all crude oil exports and sales by Nigeria from 2014 till date with regard to quantity, in- surance, revenue generated, remittances into the Feder- ation Account or other ac- counts, as well as utilisation of the revenue for the period under review.

The ad-hoc committee is also expected to investig- ate all proceeds recovered through the whistleblower’s policy and the level of com- pliancebythepolicy.
While ruling, the deputy speaker, Honourable Idris Wase, who presided over the session, mandated the ad-hoc committee to report back within four weeks for further legislative action.