House to Probe Alleged Loss of $2.4bn from Illegal Sale of 48 Million Barrels of Crude

Juliet Akoje in Abuja

The House of Representatives has resolved to constitute an Ad-hoc committee to investigate a whistle-blower`s allegations of the illegal sale of 48 million barrels of Nigeria’s Bonny Light crude in China in 2015 and the insurance status of the cargo.

The House also moved to investigate all crude oil exports and sales by Nigeria from 2014, till date, with regards to quantity, insurance, revenue generated, remittances into the federation accounts or other accounts as well as utilisation of revenue for the period under review.

The lawmakers consequently moved to investigate all proceeds recovered through the Whistleblowers Policy and the level of compliance by the policy.

The resolutions followed the adoption of a motion on the, “Alleged Loss of over $2.4 Billion in Revenue from Illegal Sale of 48 Million Barrels of Crude Oil Export in 2015 including Crude Oil Exports from 2014 till date” moved  by the Hon. Isiaka Ibrahim at plenary on Tuesday.

Ibrahim while presenting the motion said that, “the allegations by a whistleblower in July 2020 that he had in July 2015 and in response to the current administration’s whistleblower policy brought to the attention of a committee purportedly set up by the president for the recovery of missing crude oil exports, the existence of 48 million barrels of Nigeria’s Bonny Light crude oil in storage at several ports in China ostensibly under the authorisation of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the intention of parties in China and the NNPC to sell this cargo.”

According to him, the whistleblower claimed that the committee, which comprised very high-ranking officials of the administration and NNPC (some of whom he held meetings with), carried out an investigation and confirmed the existence of the cargo, but he discovered in October 2015, that the sale of this cargo had been initiated through unofficial channels and the eventual refusal of the committee to honour their agreement to pay five per cent value of the cargo in line with the terms of the whistleblower policy.

The lawmaker stressed that the allegations that the entire cargo of 48 million barrels of Bonny Light Crude was sold without the proceeds being remitted to the coffers of the country, which translated to a loss to Nigeria of over $2.4 billion considering the 2015 global average crude oil price of $52 per barrel.

“More than two years after these allegations came to the fore and the uncertainty surrounding the required insurance of these crude exports, it becomes imperative to ascertain the actual details of all previous crude exports from Nigeria from 2014 till date with regards to quantity, sale, insurance, revenue generated, payment into the Federation Account and how these proceeds were utilised,” he added.