Lagos - A probe
alleging Nigeria has lost out on tens of billions of dollars in recent years
through questionable practices in Africa's biggest oil-and-gas industry has
stirred controversy and calls for action.
The report from a
government-appointed task force has not been officially made public, but leaked
copies have generated strong responses from officials, the state oil firm and
private companies, which dispute many of its findings.
Anti-corruption
activists seeking changes to an industry that operates with little transparency
and which has long been seen as awash with graft have however sought to
pressure the government into addressing the problems alleged.
The 139-page
report, a copy of which has been obtained by AFP, is a rare look at the
inner-workings of an industry that provides Nigeria with more than two-thirds
of government revenue and nearly all of its export earnings.
It alleges that
Nigeria's government has been shortchanged billions of dollars due to issues
including unpaid royalties, exchange rate disparities, theft and pricing
discrepancies.
Bidding process
It questions
Nigeria's bidding process that grants licences to oil producers as well as the
practice of using private traders to act as middlemen in certain aspects of the
industry, which it says creates obvious avenues for graft.
Some examples of
the amounts the report says Nigeria may have lost or is owed include:
-$29 billion due
to what appeared to be lower-than-usual prices for gas sales to NLNG, whose
shareholders include Shell, Total, ENI and state oil firm NNPC
-More than $6
billion per year due to crude theft. It says there is evidence members of the
security forces profit from it.
Unpaid royalties
-$4.6 billion due
to price discrepancies in domestic crude sales
-$3.03 billion in
unpaid royalties
-$947 million from
gas produced from a Shell offshore field
-$560 million in
unpaid signature bonuses
Most of the
findings were based on a review of the industry between 2005 through 2011,
though some data goes back to 2002.
NNPC disputes much
of the report, saying there were major flaws in calculations alleging price
discrepancies, exchange rate disparities and apparent losses linked to gas.
Objections
The state firm
argued in a statement which detailed its objections that it had presented its
analysis to the task force.
"We therefore
question the basis of the decision of the task force to ignore this information
and data which would have ably assisted it in arriving at verifiable
conclusions and recommendations without misleading the public as the report
clearly did," it said.
Shell also refuted
findings that it owed Nigeria for gas produced at its offshore Bonga field.
"That
allegation is incorrect but we cannot comment further as we do not know the
basis of the calculations that yielded the $947 million number," it said
in a statement in response to questions.
Concerning sales
to liquefied natural gas firm NLNG, Shell said an analysis based only on
end-user prices would be wrong since it did not consider costs related to
transport and processing, among others issues.
Among the other
shareholders in NLNG, France-based Total declined to comment on the report,
saying that it "to the best of our knowledge has not been adopted by the
federal government of Nigeria."
Italy's ENI
referred questions on that specific matter to NLNG, which issued a statement
disputing the findings in line with Shell's.
Calls for action
The report has
been presented to President Goodluck Jonathan, who has appointed a committee to
study it. Such reports are often quickly forgotten in Nigeria, though
anti-graft groups have pressed for action.
Instead of using
the findings "to combat impunity for corruption in the oil sector, the
government has embarked on a widespread public campaign to rubbish the report
of a task force that it voluntarily commissioned," prominent anti-graft
organisation SERAP said in a statement.
The task force was
appointed in February after a nationwide strike and protests brought tens of
thousands of people into the streets. It was led by Nuhu Ribadu, a former head
of Nigeria's anti-graft agency.
The protests were
sparked by an attempt to remove fuel subsidies, which Nigerians view as their
only benefit from the oil industry because they keep petrol prices low.
However, the
demonstrations grew to embrace a range of issues, particularly corruption in a
country viewed as one of the world's most graft-ridden.
Presidential
address
The government was
forced to take action, partially reneging on fuel subsidies and appointing the
task force.
President
Jonathan, speaking during a recent televised question-and-answer session,
sought to assure a sceptical nation that corruption in the oil industry was
being addressed.
"There was
never a time that the oil industry has been so attacked from all angles,
because a number of Nigerians feel that a lot of wrong things are being
done," he said.
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