The House of Representatives ad-hoc committee investigating revenue leakages in the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has given Shell and other International Oil Companies (IOCs) one week to submit documents covering gas flaring penalties.
Other oil giants affected by the ultimatum include ExxonMobil, Agip Oil, Chevron and Total.
According to the committee resolution on Tuesday, documents to be provided would also cover royalties on natural gas liquid, signature bonus and bid round fees.
The probe panel which is chaired by Hon. Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe (PDP, C/River) said last week that based on its findings, the sum of N6 trillion has so far been lost to revenue leakages between January 2016 and this year alone.
The committee which decried the loss of the sum it considered to huge to ignore however, blamed the leakages chiefly on the inability of the DPR to exert itself as a regulatory body in the petroleum industry, which provided a leeway for IOCs to meet their financial obligations.
Checks by our correspondent also revealed that IOCs are supposed to pay $3.5 on every 1000 SCF of gas flared. However, it was gathered that most of them do not meet up such obligations.
Hon Jarigbe in his comment said: “Let them (IOCs) know that we’re giving them one week to provide the details on those revenue items. We will send them letter and they should respond within one week”.
The panel had also sent out letters to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Duke Oil, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), the minister of state for petroleum resources, Ibe Kachikwu and the Nigeria Products Marketing Company (NPMC). Only NPMC responded the panel said.
As a result, the panel also gave those that were yet to respond one week to do so else the lawmakers would be left with no option than to invoke their powers under relevant sections of the constitution to compel compliance.