Oil Payments: NEITI Summons NNPC, Shell Others

Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has invited the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and some oil companies to streamline its audit report of petroleum proceeds accruing to the Federal Government between 2009 and 2011. Also invited are Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), Chevron Nigeria Limited, and Nigeria Agip Oil Company (NAOC) Ltd among others to validate and reconcile payments they made to the government.

The invitation is also extended to all companies and government agencies involved in payment and receipt of revenue from Nigeria’s petroleum sector is expected to validate all payments within the period under review to avoid condemnation of its audit report when published.

It is also expected that the exercise will afford all parties involved an opportunity to reconcile such payments with data collected by NEITI’s independent auditors, as well as review presentations on system documentation by companies and relevant government agencies in line with the audit requirement.

Others companies to appear before it in Lagos are NNPC, SPDC, NAOC, Chevron, Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCO), Nigeria Agip Exploration (NAE), Agip Energy Natural Resources (AENR), Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited, Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) and CONOCO Phillips.

Also among the list are the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), Nigeria Gas Company (NGC), Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS), Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and the Nigeria Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS).

The invited companies are expected to tender documents such as system documentation on production and financial flows including payments and receipts of such flows by relevant government agencies on behalf of the federation as well as evidence of streams of payments made by companies.

NEITI’s audit of Nigeria’s oil and gas sector has come with disclosure of anomalies in revenue remittance by oil and gas companies to the federation account, with NNPC majorly accused in the audit reports of falling short in its remittance of oil proceeds to the government.