By Ubong Ukpong, Abuja

The House of Representatives yesterday, raised a crack adhoc committee, to Probe the petroleum Products subsidy Regime in the last five years, from 2017 to 2021

The committee was given eight weeks to carryout this investigation and report back to the House for further legislative action.

The decision was sequel to a motion on the “Need to Investigate the Petroleum Products Subsidy Regime in Nigeria from 2017 to 2021”, brought before the Honda by Hon.

The lawmaker had said that his motion was informed by section 88 (1) and (2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (As Amended) , which empowered the National Assembly to conduct investigations into the activities of any authority executing 

or administering laws made by the National Assembly;.

He also noted that Section 32 of the Petroleum Industry Act, 2021 saddled the Petroleum Midstream and 

Downstream Regulatory Authority with the task of regulating and monitoring technical and commercial 

midstream and downstream petroleum operations in Nigeria.

Ogun informed the House that as of 2002, the NNPC’s purchase of crude oil at international market prices stood at 445,000 barrels per day in order to enable it to provide petroleum products for local consumption.

He was concerned that as at 2002, the installed capacity of Nigeria’s local refineries stood at 445,000 barrels per 

day, however, their capacity utilization began to nosedive and eventually fell completely to zero due to the 

ineffectiveness and alleged corruption of critical stakeholders in the value chain.

The lawmaker said he was aware that due to the decline in the production capacity of the refineries, NNPC found it more convenient to export domestic crude in exchange for petroleum products on trade by barter basis described as Direct Sales Direct Purchase (DSDP) arrangement.

He said he was further aware that component costs in the petroleum products subsidy value chain claimed by the NNPC was highly over-bloated while the transfer pump price per litre used by the NNPC in relation to PPMC was 

underquoted as N123-N128 instead of N162-N165 and this fraudulent under-reporting of N37-N39 per 

litre translates into over 70 billion naira a month or 840 billion naira a year.

The legislator worried that the consumption rate of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) was 40million to 45million litres per day, however, the NNPC used 65 million to 100 million litres per day to determine subsidy as discoverable 

from NNPC’s monthly reports to the Federal Allocation Committee (FAAC).

He also worried that the subsidy regime has been unscrupulously used by the NNPC and other critical 

stakeholders to subvert the nation’s crude oil revenue to the tune of over 10 billion US dollars, with records 

showing that as at 2021, over 7 billion US dollars in over 120 million barrels have been so diverted.

The lawmaker was disturbed that “there exists evidence that subsidy amounts are being duplicated, thus subsidy is charged against petroleum products sales in the books of NNPC as well as against crude oil revenue in the books 

of NAPIMS to the tune of over N2 trillion.”

From Tayese Mike, Yenagoa

The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) has tasked security agencies in the country to intensify their efforts in the enforcement of the Nigerian Content in the oil and gas sector in other to boost the local participation in the sector.

Executive Secretary of the board, Engr Simbi Wabote, stated this during a sensitization workshop for law enforcement agencies on the approach to Nigerian Content enforcement in the oil and gas industry yesterday in Yenagoa.

He explained that the workshop becomes imperative to sustain the achievements made by the board in boosting indigenous participation in the oil and gas industry.

He said it was significant to enlighten stakeholders on how to encourage the indigenous participation in the oil and gas sector.

“With the results we have been able to achieved in boosting indigenous participation in the oil and gas industry, it is pertinent to enlighten law enforcement agent on how to enforce the NOGIC act.

“We have custom, EFCC, ICPC, DSS, and these are all law agents that all have a role to play as we implement the NOGIC act, that is why we schedule the workshop,” he said.

Head, Legal Services of NCDMB, Barrister Naboth Onyesoh, said the essence of the workshop was to bring in relevant stakeholders to support local content in the implementation and enforcement of the Nigerian Content act.

The workshop is part of the national economic agenda gear towards employment, creating industrialization, ensuring capital retention in the country and so many other activities revolving around the oil and gas industry.

Representatives of the security operatives from Nigerian Army, Customs, police, EFCC, ICPC, DSS, and several others attended the workshop.

Mr Mele Kyari, the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Ltd has revealed there is no single refinery that is functional at the moment in the country.

Kyari disclosed this when he appeared before the House of Representatives Joint Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) on Tuesday in Abuja.

The committee is investigating the increase in prices of diesel and cooking gas.

Kyari said that the country’s refineries were not working at the moment, adding that the situation was regretable but the NNPC was doing something to bring the refineries back to work.

According to him, the refineries will not come back tomorrow, there is a process going on. “We have decided to do a quick fix for Warri refinery.”

He said that no one could guarantee the security of petroleum supply, adding that countries were preserving excess volume that they had in their kitty.

“The world has never seen this kind of uncertainty, today countries are stockpiling products. Shortly before COVID-19 the world was already facing shortfall of 3 million barrels of supply of oil,” he said.

He said that there had been no control to manage the energy crisis across the world, stressing that ” to guarantee energy security means you just make product available at anytime and by any cost.”

The GMD also disclosed that over 200 illegal refineries were being operated across the country.

He said that the solution was to restore crude oil production, adding that there was a massive intervention that was ongoing and by the end of July “we will restore production to a level that is reasonable.

“Many European countries are asking for rationing gas, they are asking people to alternate their air conditioning. Today, countries are toying with subsidy because prices are so high because they don’t think they can manage inflation associated with it.”

Mr Farouk Ahmed, the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum, said that the current geopolitical crisis in Ukraine and Russia had resulted in the increase of petroleum product.

He added that  this was because Russia was one of the major producer, adding that the war had affected petroleum products and it also affected all nations across the world and Nigeria was not an exemption.

He said that the landing cost of petroleum product was also a factor, adding that the high cost was not limited to Nigeria.

“We need to see what can be done to alleviate the suffering of the people. If our refineries are back on stream and make foreign exchange available at the official rate of N400 per dollar.

“And if our refineries come back we can then get a reprieve. We also need to address the issue of vandalism.

Abdullahi Gaya, Chairman, House Committee on Downstream, noted that Nigeria had refining capacity but because none were functioning it led the country to her sorry state.

He said that there was need to find solution to the high cost of diesel and cooking gas in a bid to cushion the effect on the generality of Nigerians.

Some of the lawmakers who spoke, noted that Kyari and Ahmed expressed helpless situation.

“You have just presented a hopeless situation, you have the responsibility to proffer solution. If there is no solution then why are we here.

The lawmakers said that they were particularly concerned about the plight of Nigerians, as many of them collect a minimum wage of N30,000.

They noted that Nigeria may have to go the way of other nation by subsidising cooking gas.(NAN)