The House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee on Oil Theft has resumed its probe on the diverted and stolen crude oil in Nigeria valued at $20 million by top officials of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).
The committee on Wednesday hosted the DPR during its investigative hearing in Abuja.
At the hearing, the committee announced that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had been summoned to appear before the house on Thursday and Friday respectively.
Peter Akpatason, the Deputy Majority Leader of the House and Chairman of the committee, said different submissions from various stakeholders in the sectors have been received.
“During the analysis, the committee made discoveries that require clarifications from major stakeholders. The committee had earlier scheduled to meet with the military. Due to the recent changes of service chiefs, the meeting was postponed. On this, a new date will be communicated soon.
“Today, the committee is meeting with DPR, tomorrow and Friday, the committee shall be meeting NNPC and CBN, respectively,” he said.
Apatason added that the aim of the committee was to identify and provide lasting solutions to the ‘lingering cancer bedeviling the nation and not witch-hunt anyone or any organization.
The chairman said, “The committee requested and obtained schedules of crude oil produced and lifting between 2005 to 2019.
“Forensic analysis of the data revealed a very wide margin between what was reported produced and what was lifted.
“Between 2005 and 2012, DPR reported production of 1,746,621,167 barrels from four (4) sampled oil terminals of Egeravos, Bonny, Forcados and Bonga.
“Out of these production volumes, only 1,417,200,848 barrels were accounted for as having been lifted officially. A whopping volume of 329,420,319 barrels, valued at over $20bn, could not be accounted for. The same trend of infractions was observed in the years 2016-2019.”
Also, Sarki Auwalu, the Director/Chief Executive Officer of DPR, said most of the theft occurred on land terminals as pipelines were used to transport crude oil to export terminals.