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The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has said it will initiate fresh conversations on the contents and recommendations of various investigative committees set up by the federal government and National Assembly recently on issues around the management of the petroleum industry.
The reports to be re-examined are NEITI’s oil and gas industry audits from 1999 to 2011, the Nuhu Ribadu-led petroleum revenue special task force, KPMG audit of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Kalu Idika Kalu report on the state of Nigeria’s refineries.
Others are the House of Representatives Ad-Hoc Committee report on fuel subsidy (2009-2011), Magnus Abe-led Senate Joint Committee on Petroleum Resources (2005-2011), Aig-Imoukhuede-led committee on subsidy claims and payments and the Dotun Sulaiman committee on governance and global best practices in the NNPC.
NEITI hinged its decision to review the findings and recommendations of these committees on the imperative to keep up the conversations on good governance of Nigeria’s hydrocarbon industry owing to obvious unwholesome practices within the sector.
A statement signed by NEITI’s Director of Communications, Orji Ogbonnanya Orji, revealed that a comprehensive dialogue to push for installation of standard metering facilities at crude oil production and transportation hubs within the oil and gas industry of the country was being planned in conjunction with the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC).
These events, it said, were expected to as much as possible strengthen public education, enlightenment and information on governance and accountability issues in the country’s extractive industries, notably the hydrocarbon industry.
The statement read: “A forum put in place in partnership with the Revenue Watch Institute to review the findings and recommendations on various NEITI independent audit reports earlier slated for this week has been shifted to the first quarter of next year. The event was planned to review the several audit and probe reports conducted recently in the oil and gas industry with a view to enthroning good governance.
The reports to be examined when the forum eventually holds include the NEITI oil and gas audit reports covering 1999-2011, the Nuhu Ribadu petroleum revenue special task force report, the KPMG audit of NNPC and the Kalu Idika Kalu reports on the refineries.
Others are the House of Representatives Ad-Hoc Committee report on fuel subsidy (2009-2011) and the Magnus Abe-led Senate Joint Committee on Petroleum Resources (2005-2011). Such other important reports like the Aig-Imoukhuede-led committee on subsidy claims and payments and the Aig-Imoukhuede-led technical committee on verification and reconciliation of findings of Ministry of Finance investigation reports on subsidy claims and payments; Dotun Sulaiman committee on governance and global best practices in the NNPC; Nigeria Natural Resource Charter benchmarking report, and the Resource Governance Index 2013.”
The Revenue Watch Institute (RWI) had on May 15, 2013 launched its 2013 resource governance index, which measured the quality of governance in oil, gas and mining sectors in 58 countries including Nigeria that are responsible for 85 per cent of global petroleum production, 90 per cent of diamond and 80 per cent of copper.
Orji explained that the findings of the proposed forum would be used to improve Nigeria’s rating in the next survey through deepened public knowledge and democratic debates about transparency, good governance in the oil and gas sector; increased government’s attention and priority concerns for the reform of the oil and gas industry.
He added that a forum to dialogue on installation of metering infrastructure to adequately measure the quantity of crude produced in Nigeria has been postponed to the first quarter of next year. The debate over the possibility of embracing a metering system to accurately measure the quantity of crude produced has been a major remedial issue in the NEITI oil and gas industry reports.
CISLAC proposes to collaborate with NEITI to organise the policy dialogue on metering. The proposed session was expected to assemble individuals and stakeholders knowledgeable on the issue of metering in general and what is obtainable in Nigeria, in particular. The participants will appraise the status quo, its challenges and cost to the nation, implications for the sector, constraints for remediation and recommend actionable strategies for implementing a remediation action plan on metering that the in-coming Inter-ministerial Task Team can implement and form the basis for further CSO advocacy and campaign.”
Orji also noted that the exercise became necessary as a result of the absence of adequate independent metering systems suggesting that Nigeria largely depends on third parties, usually the International Oil Companies (IOCs) to determine the volume of resources extracted and exported.
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