Taking to the X platform (formerly Twitter), the Director of Corporate Communications for NNPC Limited, Olufemi Soneye, posted a statement on the social media platform denying that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) owed $6.8 billion to international oil traders.
In the statement, he claimed that NNPC Ltd. does not owe the sum of $6.8 billion to any international trader.
The statement says: “That NNPC Ltd. does not owe the sum of $6.8bn to any international trader(s). In the oil trading business, transactions are carried out on credit, and so it is normal to owe at one point or the other. But NNPC Ltd., through its subsidiary, NNPC Trading, has many open trade credit lines from several traders. The company is paying its obligations of related invoices on a first-in-first-out (FIFO) basis.“
“It is not correct to say that NNPC Ltd. has not remitted any money to the Federation Account since January. NNPC Ltd. and all its subsidiaries remit their taxes to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) regularly. This is in addition to payments of CIT to road contractors under the Road Investment Tax Credit Scheme. In all, NNPC Ltd. is the largest contributor to the tax revenue shared every month at the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC).“
“On the issue of quality/quantity fiscalization of imported petroleum products, NNPC Ltd. has no role whatsoever as it is not a regulator. The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), which is the relevant regulatory agency in charge of such issues, is an independent body and does not report to the NNPC Ltd.“
“That NNPC Ltd. is not averse to inquiries by the media into issues on and around its operations before dissemination to the public either through the print or electronic channels of communication as the company will, always, gladly take the opportunities to state the facts of the subject matter(s). This is in line with the company’s commitment to the Transparency, Accountability, and Performance Excellence (TAPE) philosophy as emplaced by the Mele Kyari-led management since stepping into the saddle in 2019.”
Things to consider:
- The Federal Republic of Nigeria is Africa’s largest oil producer. According to Nigeria’s Chief of Naval Staff, Emmanuel Ikechukwu Ogalla, crude oil production has increased to between 1.6 million and 1.7 million barrels per day.
- NNPC has been embroiled in an ongoing dispute over the Dangote Refinery and other refineries like the Edo Refinery and Petrochemicals Company Limited demanding that they be supplied with crude oil since under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), oil producers in the country are required to supply a specified quantity of crude oil to domestic refineries.
