Heat on Nigeria oil industry as sector chiefs meet

• It comes on the heels of a report from a government-appointed panel alleging Nigeria has lost out on tens of billions of dollars in recent years through questionable practices in the industry.

Lagos, Sunday

Major oil industry executives gather in Nigeria’s capital for an annual conference this week with Africa’s largest crude producer under pressure over reports alleging large-scale corruption and mismanagement.

Starting today’s evening in Abuja, the conference is expected to see appearances by government ministers and top officials from oil majors Shell, Exxon, Total and Chevron, as well as Nigeria’s state petroleum firm NNPC.

It comes on the heels of a report from a government-appointed panel alleging Nigeria has lost out on tens of billions of dollars in recent years through questionable practices in the industry.

Another audit released earlier this month said NNPC owes the government $8.3 billion for the period from 2009 through 2011.

Beyond that, a parliamentary committee report last year said $6.8 billion in revenue was lost between 2009 and 2011 in Nigeria’s fraud-ridden fuel subsidy programme.

Despite pledges from the government to clean up the oil sector, there has been little change in response to such findings. NNPC and firms including Shell, which has been the country’s biggest producer, have denied any wrongdoing.

There is not likely to be much discussion of the reports at the conference itself, with topics such as Nigeria’s long-stalled effort to overhaul its oil industry more likely to be in the spotlight.

No political will

“You have all the issues there,” Auwal Ibrahim Musa Rafsanjani of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, Transparency International’s local partner, said of the reports on industry mismanagement.

“Solutions have been provided, but there is no political will to act on them.”

The oil industry is of vital importance to Nigeria, with crude production at some 2.0 million barrels per day in January, according to the International Energy Agency.

The government derives some 80 per cent of its revenue and nearly all of its export earnings from the industry, leaving the country vulnerable to potential tumbles in oil prices.
But despite the billions earned in oil revenue over the years, Nigeria remains severely underdeveloped.