NEITI: Nigeria Earned $32.63bn from Oil Sector in 2018, Spent N850bn on Subsidy, Repairs

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has disclosed that the country earned a total of $32.63 billion from the oil and gas sector in 2018, which it said represented a 55 per cent increase in the $20.99 billion recorded in the sector in the preceding year.

NEITI, in the 11th edition of the Oil and Gas Industry Audit released in Abuja by Dr Orji Orji, Director, Communications and Advocacy, Monday, said that in the year under review, the country realised N2.295 trillion as proceeds from sales of domestic crude oil allocation, out of which N722.3 billion was spent on petroleum subsidy, now rechristened ‘under–recovery’, while N138.95 billion was expended on pipeline repairs and maintenance.

While explaining that the latest report effectively cleared the backlogs of the audits of the extractive sector except for 2019 which will be made available this year, it added that N28.3 billion was calculated for crude and product losses.

According to the organisation, a breakdown of the $32.63 billion earned in 2018 showed that company-level financial flows into government coffers were $16.6 billion, while flows from sales of federation crude oil and gas accounted for $16.billion.

It noted that a five-year trend analysis of the earnings from the extractive sector showed a 54.6 per cent drop from $54.6 billion in 2014 to $24.8 billion in 2015, stressing that the earnings further dropped by 31.2 per cent to $17.05 billion in 2016, but increased by 23 per cent to $20.99 billion in 2017 and by 55 per cent to $32.63 billion in 2018.

NEITI reported that though the last two years bucked the trend of persistent decrease since 2014, the revenues from the sector in 2018 were still a staggering 40 per cent below the $54.6 billion earned in 2014 when oil prices commenced a precipitous fall.

It affirmed that the body reconciled payments by 71 companies and the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) that met the materiality threshold set for the exercise, stating that a total of eight government entities were also covered by the audit.

“Out of the $32.63 billion earned from the sector in 2018, the sum of $19.92 billion was transferred [directly] into the Federation Account, while $5.21billion and $4.04billion were transferred into the JV Cash Call Account and Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) designated accounts respectively.

“The NNPC designated accounts are the naira and dollar accounts where domestic crude sales and the federation equity, royalty, petroleum profit tax and in-kind oil sales are paid into respectively before remittance to the Federation Account.

“$2.10 billion was transferred into third parties project financing accounts and $1.37billion were recorded as subnational transfers,” the report stated.

On production, the report stated that the total crude oil production in the country within the period under review was put at 701 million barrels, representing a slight increase of 1.5 per cent when compared to 690 million barrels produced in 2017.

“A breakdown showed that Joint Ventures (JVs) contributed the highest production of 315 million barrels, followed by Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) which recorded 270.610 million barrels.

“Other funding arrangements like Sole Risk (SR), Marginal Fields (MFs) and Service Contracts (SCs) accounted for 92.2 million barrels, 22 million barrels, and 1.3 million barrels respectively.

“JV companies’ production increased by 3.12% in 2018 compared to 2017, while PSC operators’ production decreased by 10.90%.

“Similarly, SR operators’ production increased by 58.72% in 2018 compared to 2017. Production from the SC decreased by 10.27%, while production from MF operators increased marginally by 1.18%,” the report stated.

The NEITI report further disclosed that the total crude oil lifted for both export and domestic sales in 2018 was 701 million barrels, representing a 1.9 per cent increase when compared with total lifting of 688.3 million barrels in 2017.

“Analysis of the total lifting in 2018 showed that 255.6 million barrels or 36% was lifted by NNPC on behalf of the federation, while companies lifted 445.5 million barrels or 64% of total lifting.

“The lifting by NNPC indicates an increase of 5.95% when compared to 241 million barrels lifted in 2017. Further analysis showed that out of 255.6 million barrels lifted by NNPC in 2018, actual sales were 255.3 million barrels valued at $18.2 billion.

“Out of the 255.6 million barrels lifted on behalf of the Federation by NNPC, a total of 107.63 million barrels was recorded as Domestic Crude Allocation (DCA) in 2018.

“Out of this figure, 94 million barrels or 87% of the DCA were utilised for Direct Sale Direct Purchase (DSDP), while the balance of 13.58 million barrels or 13% was delivered to the refineries” it said.

It said that ordinarily, 160.2 million barrels (or 445, 000 barrels per day) should have been allocated for domestic consumption but only 107.63 million barrels or 67 per cent of the customary allocation for domestic consumption was given out.

It added: “The sum of N2.295 trillion was realised as proceeds from sales of domestic crude oil allocation in 2018, out of which the following deductions were made: N722.3 billion for under-recovery of imported petroleum products, N28.3 billion for crude and product losses and N138.95 billion for pipeline repairs and maintenance cost.”

The report also revealed that in 2018 “total crude oil losses due to theft and sabotage was 53.28 million barrels, an increase of 46.15 per cent when compared to 16.824 million barrels recorded in 2017.

Similarly, the report put total products losses in 2018, due to pipeline breakages at 204,397.07 cubic metres.

On gas production, the NEITI 2018 oil and gas report revealed that the total gas production for the year under review was 2,909,143.69mmscf, while total gas utilisation was 2,909,143.55 mmscf.

From the report, $307.20million was realised from the sales of federation gas of 633.55 thousand metric tonnes in 2018. This represents increase of 7.10% when compared to 721.80 thousand metric tonnes valued at $286, 85 million realised in 2017.

“The national gas reserve stood at 200.79tcf as at end of 2018. This is made up of 101.98 tcf of Associated Gas (AG) and 98.81 tcf of Non-Associated Gas (NAG).

“With the 2018 annual gas production quantity, the gas Reserves Life Index (RLI) was estimated at 92 years,” the report disclosed.

On management of Joint Venture Cash Call, NEITI disclosed that aggregate cash call funding for 2018 amounted to $5.98 billion, outstanding Cash Call Liabilities amounted to $3.66 billion, comprising $3.41 billion (93%) legacy liabilities and $260 million (7%) performance balance payable to JV operators.

NEITI noted that the total social expenditure (mandatory and voluntary expenditures) was $902.67 million, comprising voluntary contribution of $59.27 million (6.57%), while mandatory contribution stood at $843.39million
(93.40%).

“The mandatory contribution was made up of NDDC’s 3% levy of $683.38million and NCDMB’s 1% levy of $160.01million. Oil and gas industry contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2018 was put at 7.8%. “The flows in the industry accounted for $32.64billion in absolute terms. This represents 7.8% of the total GDP Current Basic Price of ($ 418.12billion),” it stated.

On contribution to exports, it said the oil and gas industry accounted for $19.13 billion in absolute terms, representing 30.6 per cent of total exports ($62.49billion) in 2018, adding that the employment in the oil and gas industry accounted for 19,820, representing 0.03% of the total employment (69.54million) in Nigeria.