The Nigerian Senate has, yesterday, approved over N348 billion for payment outstanding petroleum subsidy claims to 74 petroleum marketers. The approval came following the Senate’s adoption of an interim report submitted by its Committee on Petroleum Downstream sector, on the Promissory Note Programme as well as a Bond Issuance to Settle Inherited Local Debts and Contractual Obligations to Petroleum marketers.
According to the report, the breakdown of the payment showed that 55 oil marketers are to receive N275,750,415,108, while 19 others will get N73,452,639,866 of out of the N348 billion.
This means 55 oil marketers will be paid 100 percent of their claims, while the remainin 19 will be paid 65 percent as a result of irregularities in their claims and as recommended by the committee.
The upper chamber asked the committee to continue engaging with the Ministry of Finance, oil marketing companies, Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) and other stakeholders so as to enable them update all the outstanding liabilities and clear all outstanding debts, interests accrued and forex differential once and for all.
Senator Kabir Marafa, who is presently the chairman of the committee, alleged that the marketers had informed the committee that they were being owed the sum of  N670,497,543,15, as of June 30, 2017. The PPPRA had verified and approved the sum of N429,054,203,228 to the Federal Ministry of Finance.
According to Marafa, despite the fact that the verified figure was approved by the Federal Executive Council, the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA) reduced the amount to N407,255,263,288 after further verification.
The senator also stated that:
“The continuous delay of the of the approval promissory note request would affect the liquidity of the Oil Marketing Companies and undermine their crucial role in the development of the economy.”
The approved amount is expected to be shared to oil marketers as follows: Aiteo – N4,988,199,360; Conoil – N5,588,285,132; Forte Oil – N15,480,455,907; Bovas – N5,953,684,258; Capital Oil – N8,339,052; Mobil – N8,282363; MRS Oil and Gas – N20,948,270; Oando – N14,972,585,600; and Total – N21,569,996,843.
