NIGERIA indebtedness to International Oil Companies (IOCs) stood at $5.1
billion, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) told the
Senate yesterday.
The $5.1 billion, according to the
Corporation, was accumulated from the Joint Venture Cash Call (JVC)
business arrangement the country has with IOCs on oil exploration.
But
the NNPC denied allegation of mismanagement of $3.2 billion said to
have been withdrawn from the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG)
account between 2015 till date.
The Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
of NNPC, Isiaka Abdulrasaq, who appeared before the Senate Committee on
Gas explained how the debt was incurrininguired capital into it.”
Nigeria,
he said, was “only collecting its equity share inform of revenues which
made the country as at 2015, to have $6.8 billion unpaid capital into
the venture.”
He further explained that “the present government
in 2016, succeeded in getting 35 per cent discount from the unpaid
capital amounting to $1.9 billion from the unpaid capital, making the
country to still owe the IOCs $5.1 billion outstanding.”
On
the alleged $3.2 billion reportedly withdrawn from the NLNG account by
the NNPC within the last three years, the CFO insisted that there was no
mismanagement in any of the withdrawals made.
He noted that based on available records with NNPC, only 13 withdrawals were made from the account amounting to $1.2 billion.
The
official said that more than seven IOCs dealing with the NNPC have
expressed concern about the continuity of their business operations as a
result of bogus figures being bandied about withdrawals from the NLNG
account.
Chairman of the committee, Senator Albert Bassey Akpan,
asked the NNPC CFO to submit approving documents for all the withdrawals
by Tuesday next week.
Akpan said: “We are not saying any money
has been stolen. What we are doing is clarifying the processes of
expenditures made from the account with a view to making management of
the account more transparent and beneficial to Nigerians.”
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