Nigeria’s oil and gas revenue due to the Federation Account in the month of February was wiped off by N383.09 billion deductions by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPC Ltd), checks by Vanguard have shown. The newspaper also reported that revealed gross revenue from oil and gas sales of N358.25 billion.
But deductions for Joint Venture (JV) cost recovery (N146.82 billion), Strategic holding cost (N511.71 million), Pipelines Operations, repairs and management cost (N873.53 million), Value shortfall (petrol subsidy – N210.38 billion) and government priority project (N24.83 billion) meant that no revenue was remitted to the Federation Account.
The Chairman of Nigerian Governors Forum and the Governor of Ekiti State, Dr Kayode Fayemi had last week expressed state governors’ frustration of not benefiting anything from the rise in the price of crude oil in the international market.
Also, a lot of analysts have also raised concern on how Nigeria refused to benefit from the global rising oil price, fingers have been pointed to subsidy and bunkering.
He explained: “We’ve just had Federation allocation accounts. Committee meeting a couple of days ago, and the NNPC contributed zero to the Federation account this month and this is not the first month that the NNPC is contributing zero. Over the last couple of months, we’ve been having these challenges, of course, we know why.
“Even though oil prices in the international market is going up, maybe $110 today or more, the more it goes up it would appear that the more we suffer locally now. So there’s an ambiguous relationship of sorts between what is happening in the international market and what we’re experiencing here in Nigeria and as critical stakeholders in the Nigerian Federation, states are naturally concerned about this, they are concerned about how to grow this industry and ensure that this industry is sustained over the long term in a manner that it can benefit those who are stakeholders in the industry.
“That is partly why for us governments of the sector is a very, very critical thing to do. The PIA is responding to some of the issues that we have about that, but it’s like a typical transition”.
However, the Governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu said failure to receive any revenue for the oil and gas sector in the month despite the high price of crude oil and gas at the international market meant that the country was bankrupt.
The governors insisted that the petrol subsidy must be removed if the country is to benefit from the rising oil price.
SOURCE:
intelregion
Hammed Salaudeen.
