NNPC: How ‘Missing’ $12.9bn Was Spent

• Lists BrassLNG, OlokolaLNG, NLNG new trains as beneficiaries
• Says balance of dividend now in custody of CBN

Chineme Okafor in Abuja

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Tuesday said parts of the $12.9 billion dividends it received from the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Ltd on behalf of the federation but which it did not remit over a period of eight years was not missing but reinvested into other gas projects.

The corporation also said the balance of the dividend has been moved to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), adding that it was no longer housing the money in line with the federal government’s directive on the Treasury Single Account (TSA).
NNPC stated these in Abuja when the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) convened a stakeholders’ dialogue on the 2013 audit report of activities in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry.

It said that it took and ploughed back parts of the dividends to new trains that were built by the NLNG.

It equally listed the BrassLNG and OlokolaLNG projects, as well as other gas projects it did not mention, as other beneficiaries from the dividend. The BrassLNG and OlokolaLNG projects have however remained on the ground.
NNPC explained that the reinvestment in NLNG was part of its equity share of the cost of such expansion in its trains. The NLNG currently has six trains which produce 22 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of LNG.

MORE DETAILS LATER