This is an excerpt from an article in this month’s Nigeria Focus publication.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is in arrears to the IOCs over a US$5 billion joint venture (JV), and the matter continues to cause concern. According to Deputy Petroleum Resources Minister Emmanuel Kachikwu, the first repayment instalment was scheduled this April.

The US$5 billion in arrears is nonetheless only a fraction of the more than US$17 billion in crude oil export proceeds that the House of Representatives indicates was not remitted to federal coffers between 2011 and 2014.

The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has indicated that NNPC subsidiary Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) has also failed to remit US$5.5 billion to the federal treasury.

Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor Godwin Emefiele was accused throughout March by the House of Representatives of not providing information on the whereabouts of missing funds – up to US$2.7 billion of which are alleged to be under CBN control.

Justice Minister Abubakar Malami appeared before a House committee investigating the matter. He identified the judiciary as a key roadblock in recovering the funds that are being pursued in a number of Lagos and Abuja court cases. According to him, Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC), Chevron, Total, Shell, Addax Petroleum, and Taleveras are among the companies that should face criminal charges in addition to civil ones.

Nevertheless, key senior federal officials – including from the NPDC and the CBN – failed to appear at an 11 April hearing on the matter, demonstrating that the resolve of the House of Representatives is not being taken seriously in some quarters.

Settling other debts

Meanwhile, NNPC managing director Maikanti Kacalla Baru has publicly acknowledged that Taleveras has settled amounts owed to the NNPC under previous crude oil swap agreements, meeting a scheduled US$10 million repayment tranche.

According to NNPC officials, Aiteo Group, which last month expressed optimism at increasing production at the Niger Delta’s OML 29 has also settled a debt – of approximately US$200 million. This comprises amounts owed under oil swaps and other miscellaneous downstream debts to NNPC and its subsidiaries. [article continues]