The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) audited the petroleum industry and revealed that oil companies owe the Nigerian government about $6.175bn in royalties and taxes.
As of August 31, 2024, the breakdown of the owed amount includes $6.071 billion and ₦66.4 billion in unpaid royalties and gas flare penalties to the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).
Furthermore, outstanding payments, such as petroleum profit taxes, company income taxes, withholding taxes, and VAT owed to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), amount to $21.926 million and ₦ $492.8 million as of June 2024.
The industry’s revenue dropped 9% in 2023 to $16.467 billion, compared to $18.106 billion in 2022.
In 2023, 7.68 million barrels of crude oil were lost due to theft and measurement errors, a significant decrease of 79% from the 36.69 million barrels lost in 2022, with another 153.44 million barrels deferred.
The government paid ₦3.01trillion as a petrol subsidy in 2023, down from ₦4.71tn in 2022.
The importation of PMS (premium motor spirit) into the country declined from 23.54 billion litres in 2022 to 20.28 billion litres in 2023, a reduction of 3.25 billion litres or 14% following the removal of the subsidy.
The highest annual PMS importation was recorded in 2022, at 23.54 billion litres, while the lowest was in 2017, at 16.88 billion litres. Between 2006 and 2023, N15.87 trillion was claimed as under-recovery/price differentials, with the highest amount, N4.714 trillion, recorded in 2022.
During the report unveiling, Sen. George Akume, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Chairman of the NEITI Board stressed the government’s commitment to ensuring NEITI’s independence and non-interference in its operations.
The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Olanipekun Olukayode, pledged to use the latest report to recover all outstanding revenues from the companies, citing past successful recovery and remittance of over ₦1 billion to the government’s coffers based on NEITI’s previous reports.