The Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation (OAGF) has accused the former Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), now known as Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, of failing to account for approximately 107,239,436 barrels of crude oil lifted for domestic use in 2019.

According to Punch, the office made the accusation in its 2019 six audit queries issued against the NNPC, which are now being evaluated by the Senate and House Committees on Public Accounts.

The report says about 22,929.84 litres of petrol valued at N7.06 billion and pumped to the two depots (Ibadan-Ilorin and Aba-Enugu) in June and July 2019 were not received by the depots.

The investigation identified disparities between the amount reported by the NNPC as a transfer to the federation account and the amount reported by the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation.

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While the NNPC’s records indicated that it transferred N1,272,606,864,000, the Accountant-General of the Federation said it transferred N608,710,292,773.44, creating a shortfall of N663,896,567,227.58.

As a result, the Auditor-General said the NNPC’s Group Managing Director should be compelled to explain the gap between the two numbers and return the balance of N663,896,567,227.58 to the federation account or face penalties.

NNPC sent N519,922,433,918.46 to the federation account in accordance with transfer directives.

As a result, the Auditor-General ordered that the NNPC provide “reconciliation statement for the difference of N88,787,862,853.96 between AGF’s figure of N608,710,296,772.42 and NNPC’s figure per transfer mandate of N519,922,433,918.46”.

“Audit observed that 107,239,436.00 barrels of crude oil were lifted as domestic crude, while the allocation of crude oil to refineries for a billing date of 9th January to 29th May 2019 was 2,764,267.00 barrels valued at N55,891,009,960.63,” said the Auditor-General.

“Information on the sale of un-utilised crude oil by refineries for 2019 was not provided, and information on crude oil allocations from 30th May to 31st December 2019 was not provided for scrutiny.”

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The office cited probable diversion of domestic oil, diversion of unutilized petroleum, and revenue loss from the federation account, alleging that the NNPC’s management refused to answer to the audit enquiry.

“The Group Managing Director of NNPC is requested to provide a complete schedule of crude oil allocation to refineries from 1st January to 31st December, 2019, to detail the sale of un-utilized crude oil and reconcile it with the total domestic crude oil lifted in 2019 of 107,239,436.00 barrels, and to remit the proceeds from the sale of un-utilized crude oil to the Federation Account,” the query states.

Citing Section 162(1) of the 1999 Constitution, the Auditor-General said the NNPC spent $6.410 million (N1.955 billion at N305/$1) on Joint Venture Cash Calls and other federally-funded upstream projects, such as gas infrastructure development, Brass LNG, crude oil pre-export inspection agency expenses, frontier exploration services, EGTL operating expenses, and the NESS fee; and another N55.157 billion on pipeline security and maintenance without first depositing the funds into the federation account.