A comprehensive audit of the petroleum industry by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has uncovered substantial unpaid liabilities totaling $6.175 billion owed by oil companies to the Federation as of June 2024.
According to the 2022/2023 oil and gas industry report presented in Abuja, these liabilities comprise $6.071 billion and ₦66.4 billion in unpaid royalties and gas flare penalties owed to the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) by August 31, 2024. Additionally, the companies have outstanding petroleum profit taxes, company income taxes, withholding taxes, and VAT amounting to $21.926 million and ₦492.8 million owed to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) as of June 2024.
The report also highlighted a 9% decline in industry revenue in 2023, with $16.467 billion recorded compared to $18.106 billion in 2022. However, oil output increased by 9.5% in 2023, reaching 537.57 million barrels, up from 490.94 million barrels in 2022.
NEITI’s audit revealed the highest production volume over the past decade was 798.54 million barrels in 2014, while the lowest was 490.94 million barrels in 2022. The report also disclosed a total loss of 7.68 million barrels of crude oil in 2023 due to theft and measurement errors, representing a significant 79% drop from the 36.69 million barrels lost in 2022.
Furthermore, 153.44 million barrels of crude oil production were deferred in 2023, with companies like SPDC (39.13 million barrels), TEPNG (6.07 million barrels), and TUPNI (3.5 million barrels) being the most affected.
In terms of petroleum subsidy, the report showed the government paid N3.01 trillion in 2023, down from N4.71 trillion in 2022. PMS importation decreased by 14% to 20.28 billion litres in 2023, compared to 23.54 billion litres in 2022.
A 10-year trend analysis (2014-2023) revealed the highest annual PMS importation was 23.54 billion litres in 2022, while the lowest was 16.88 billion litres in 2017. Between 2006 and 2023, a total of N15.87 trillion was claimed as under-recovery/price differentials, with the highest amount (N4.714 trillion) recorded in 2022.
