Nigeria Lost $22.9bn To Gas Flares In 10 Years -NOSDRA

The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) is to part the Nigeria Upstream Regulatory Commission ( NUPRC) and Nigerian Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) to boost revenue generation through proper management of gas flares in line with global best practice. This is in a bid to arrest huge revenue losses recorded and enhance revenue generation into government coffers.    According to RMAFC Public Relations Officer, Christian Nwachukwu, RMAFC   Chairman Mohammed Bello Shehu disclosed this during an interactive forum with delegations from NUPRC and NOSDRA recently in Abuja.    Bello noted that in view of the current government’s efforts to shore up the Nation’s revenue generation, the gas sector of the economy must be given adequate attention with NUPRC and NOSDRA as regulatory bodies in determining quality and quantities of gas production alongside adherence to environmental standards for host Communities.             Responding, the Director of Economic Regulation and Strategic planning of NUPRC, Mr. Babajide Fashino noted that Nigeria is at the fore front of managing gas flares in line with global best practices for economic growth and sustainability. This is done with the introduction of a metering system and calibration of the meters for accurate records of gas management.  According to Babajide, the introduction of such technologies has gone a long way in reducing gas flares gas flaring in Nigeria from 40 per cent to a mere 7 per cent. Earlier, the Director of ICT in NOSDRA, Mrs. Margaret Adeshida underscored the need for proper monetisation of gas flares in Nigeria, noting that Nigeria flared more than 4.2 billion standard cubic feet of gas leading to the country’s loss of more than $14.6 billion revenue between 2012 and 2021.  This is in addition to $8.3 billion loss in penalty for the wastages. Mohammed Shehu therefore called on all the relevant stakeholders in the management of the gas economy including the revenue monitoring Committee of the present administration to salvage the Country by coming together to work out proper strategies to convert the gas flare to economic use for enhancing revenue generation into the Federation Account.

Crude Oil Theft: Nigeria has lost N16.25trn in 11 years, says Speaker

Speaker of the House of Representatives Tajudeen Abbas on Thursday said that Nigeria lost N16.25 trillion to crude oil theft between 2009 and 2020. The speaker said this while inaugurating the ad hoc committee to investigate crude oil theft and loss of revenue in Abuja. He said the menace of crude oil theft had hampered the growth of the country’s oil production, with between five and 30 per cent of crude oil production lost daily. He said that critical agencies in the oil and gas sector like the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Ltd, Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, Ministry of Petroleum Resources among others failed to honour invitation. Represented by the Chairman, House Committee on Petroleum Upstream, Al-Hassan Ado-Doguwa, the speaker said if decisive action was not taken to address the issue, the country may be thrown into a deeper fiscal crisis. This according to him is due to dwindling revenue from the oil and gas sector. Quoting data from the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), Abbas said Nigeria’s oil production declined from 2.51 million barrels per day in 2005 to 1.77 million barrels per day in 2020. He said “NEITI reports also show that 619 million barrels of crude valued at 46 billion dollars were stolen in the period 2009 to 2020″. He added that Nigeria had continually failed to meet its daily production quota as set by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). According to him, recently, Nigeria’s OPEC quota was reduced from 1.742 million barrels per day to 1.38 million barrels per day. “Yet, the country is still struggling to meet this quota as daily production output was 1.184 million barrels per day and 1.249 million barrels per day in May and June 2023 respectively. “On the average, current daily production output is a far cry from the budget assumption of 1.69 million per day. The implication is clearly manifest in the economic crisis that the country is facing.” He said the nation had been facing a major fiscal crisis, adding that global recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine had continued to cast a cloud of uncertainty on the oil and gas industry. Al-hassa Runrum, the Chairman of the Ad-hoc Committee said the volume of losses occasioned by oil theft in the country and its associated impact on the economy was unacceptable. He said this would not be tolerated by any government, who sincerely loves its citizens. He added that such act of sabotage and breach on the nation’s security and sovereignty makes a caricature of the nation’s pride “It is an affront on the government and its institutions, which must be tackled without further delay,’’ he said. He said the committee was determined to bring the ugly trend to an end otherwise there might be no future for “our children who have not yet “jappered’’ to other countries in search of survival.”