NNPC denies unofficially exporting 17.8 million barrels of crude oil

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has denied unofficially exporting 17.8 million barrels of crude oil between 2016 and 2020.

The NNPC said this in a January 4 statement issued by the company’s chief corporate communications officer, Garba Deen Muhammad.

The statement which was seen by Nairametrics read:

• “Our attention has been drawn to an online publication, alleging that NNPC exported 17.877 million barrels of crude oil without proper documentation in four years (from 2016 to 2020).
• “The Auditor General’s report in reference did mention 32 oil marketing companies involved in the non-completion of the Nigeria Export Proceeds (NXP) forms. But that does not in any way mean that the proceeds from the sale of the said crude were not repatriated into the coffers of NNPC and consequently into the Federation Accounts for Federation related barrels.
• “It should also be noted that NNPC does not appoint Inspection Agents as alleged, but rather, it is the sole responsibility of the Federal Ministry of Finance. Therefore, the general public is advised to disregard the said malicious publication, and instead, visit the relevant Auditor General’s website to see the full content of the audit report, and be guided accordingly.”

Backstory: On January 1, 2023, the Auditor General of the Federation alleged that:

• Information obtained from Pre-Shipment Inspection Agents (PIAs) revealed that during the audit period, a total of 17,877,705 barrels of crude oil valued at $1,020,969,281.12 (One billion, twenty million, nine hundred and sixty-nine thousand, two hundred and eighty-one dollars, twelve cents only) were exported without completion of the required NXP forms.
• Audit review of the annual reports of Pre-Shipment Inspection Agents (PIA) for the period revealed that some exporters of crude oil exported without completing the required NXP form as stipulated.
• According to the office of the Auditor General, the guidelines for Oil and Gas Export 2017 requires any person intending to export oil and gas and other related product from Nigeria shall, in the first instance, process the Nigeria Export Proceeds (NXP) Form and any other form so prescribed through an authorized dealer bank irrespective of the value and whether or not payment is involved.
• The NNPC was also accused of appointing two PIAs and one Monitoring and Evaluation Agent (MEA) in 2017 knowing fully well that President Muhammadu Buhari canceled the appointments of all service providers in 2015.

For the record: The Nigeria Export Proceeds form is a mandatory statutory document to be completed by all exporters for the shipment of goods outside Nigeria.

• It contains details of the goods to be exported and facilitate tracking of export proceeds into the exporter’s domiciliary account in Nigeria.