2019 Audit Query: Result Show 107 Million Barrels of Crude Oil Missing

The recent audit report by the Auditor-General for the Federation, Adolphus Aghughu, has revealed that about 107 million barrels of crude oil are still unaccounted for.

The report revealed that the defunct Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC) failed to account for about 107,239,436.00 barrels of crude oil lifted for local consumption in 2019.

This revelation signed by the Auditor-General led to six audit queries as contained in the Federal Government of Nigeria consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2019. The queries were said to have been submitted to the Clerk of the National Assembly via a letter dated August 18th, 2021, and signed by the Auditor General, Adolphus Aghughu.

According to the report, records from the performance report of two NNPC depots – Ibadan-Ilorin and Aba-Enugu – revealed that about 22,929.84 litres of premium motor spirit (PMS) valued at N7.06 billion cumulative of the two depots between June and July 2019 were not received.

The audit report also noted discrepancies between the amount according to what was reported by the Accountant General of the Federation and the amount reported by the NNPC as transfer to the federations account: The NNPC’s records established that N1,272,606,864,000.00 was transferred by the corporation while the amount recorded by the Accountant General of the federation was N608,710,292,773.44, showing a discrepancy of N663,896,567,227.58.

These discrepancies also plays in as the report shows that the sum of N519,922,433,918.46 was transferred to the Federation Account by the NNPC based on transfer mandates, while also demanding that the company 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.

The report by the AuGF states in part: “Audit observed that 107,239,436.00 barrels of crude oil were lifted as domestic crude, while allocation of crude oil to refineries for a billing date of 9th January to 29th May 2019 was 2,764,267.00 bbls valued at N55,891,009,960.63.

Information on 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. The Group Managing Director of NNPC is requested to provide the complete schedule of allocation of Crude Oil to Refineries from 1st January to 31st December, 2019, furnish details of sale of unutilised crude oil and reconcile it with total domestic crude oil of 107,239,436.00 bbls lifted in 2019 and remit amount realized from sale of unutilised crude oil to the Federation Account.”