$17bn stolen crude: Issues before House committee’s probe panel

It smacks on the impossible: The House of Representatives has set up an ad hoc committee to probe revenue losses in crude oil and gas sales. The House even gave a time span: 2011 to 2014. And who is saddled with this seemingly herculean task? It’s Abdulrasak Namdas, the Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs. He is the one chairing the Ad Hoc committee meant to unravel what only men with links to the fourth dimension can probably accomplish. And without wasting much time, the lawmaker swung into action, inviting all concerned stakeholders. The media was always fully represented at the hearings, after all, by virtue of his position as the spokesman of the House, he is in their constituency. Now, the issue of who carted away what is being investigated, but the most important issue is not starting the journey but completing it. Many are wont to wager that strategic land mines will be strewn along the part of the committee with intent to derail, mislead, delay or totally destroy its mandate. It has happened before, and may likely happen again. It will be a surprise if the committee members had not considered that. Essentially, the purpose of the investigation is to unearth who benefitted from undeclared crude oil and liquefied natural gas exports from 2011-2014 estimated at $17 billion. There had been tales of collusion by government agencies and many had posited that it would take patience, perseverance, long-suffering, prayers and possibly fasting, all rolled into one, to come up with anything meaningful from the whole exercise. Already, Namdas is screaming himself hoarse that government agencies are scuttling the $17bn stolen crude/gas exports probe. Are Nigerians listening? At the last session of the committee, those invited that did not appear included the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation NNPC, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency NIMASA, Nigeria Customs Service, Nigerian Navy, Nigerian Ports Authority. Others were the National Petroleum Investment Management Services NAPIMS, Accountant General of the Federation, Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Recall that this is not the first time such probe is being done. Let’s rewind to 11th of December, 2013 in Conference Room 028. Seated before reporters was the Chairman of the ad hoc Committee probing Oil theft and pipeline vandalism in the Niger Delta; his name is Hon. Bashir Adamu. The mandate of his committee at that time included ” to determine how deep pipelines are buried and if they are accessible to oil thieves; determine how stolen crude oil is transported; identify the owners of illegal vessels; ascertain the status of impounded vessels and recommend the confiscation of vessels used for illegal bunkering; determine the roles of various organization’s tackling illegal bunkering; determine the countries aiding and abetting the crude oil criminals” and finally, “recommend preventive measures and lasting solutions to the menace.”
Bashir Adamu’s briefing began at 11: 18 am that day and lasted for exactly six minutes. And for the benefit of Hon. Namdas, I will like to reproduce a sizeable portion of that briefing:
Adamu said: “illegal oil bunkering is a specialized and mechanized crime issue and several attempts have been made by the federal government to tackle the challenge to no avail. The level of oil theft is alarming and of great concern to stakeholders. The oil and gas industry account for about two- third of government revenue and more than 90 percent of export earnings in Nigeria. Illegal bunkering has caused Nigeria to lose an estimated $5 billion, about N780 billion annually amounting to about $400 billion since independence.
“Statistics show that about 350,000 barrels per day was lost to illegal bunkering in 2012, representing an increase of about 20 percent over the figures of 2011 and 67 percent over that of 2010, while the trend of 2013 is even more alarming. Unless the government summons the will to fight the menace, the situation will further worsen the country’s economic woes.
“The rising level of crude oil theft and pipeline vandalization, particularly in the Niger Delta region has reached high dimension. The ugly development has made the operators in the Nigerian oil and gas industry one of the most expensive in the world.
“In April 2013, oil giant, Shell Petroleum Development Company, shut down the 150,000 Nembe crude oil pipeline due to urgent need to clear away illegal connections.”
The lawmaker said the ugly phenomenon of oil theft and its global support system has continued to be a clog in the wheels of the nation’s high economic growth trajectory. “Government should beam its searchlight on all security agencies in the country in a bid to fish out those who perpetuate this illicit trade,” Adamu said.
The adhoc committee in the 7th House, according to Adamu intended to have a 5- day public hearing. It didn’t hold. “At the end of the hearing, the committee hopes to put in place a legislation that will ensure improved monitoring of onshore and offshore areas in order to discourage vandalism and oil theft in the nation and propose adequate prosecution of criminals,” the ad hoc committee chairman said. That also did not happen. Suffice to say that the six minutes briefing of 11th December, 2013 in Conference Room 028 was the only activity carried out by the committee known to House of Representatives Press Corps till this day.
Back to the present: Recall that the resolution of the Green Chamber on the $17 billion probe was sequel to the adoption of a motion sponsored by Johnson Agbonayinma and titled “Urgent Need to Investigate over $17 billion Stolen from Undeclared Crude Oil and Liquefied Natural Gas Exports to Global Destinations.” The House thereafter set up an adhoc committee to investigate 20 companies, two law firms, two Federal Government agencies, and a technical consultant contracted by the Jonathan administration amongst other mandates.
Agbonayinma said the establishments were identified by Molecular Power System Limited in a report on shipment of oil and gas exports from 2011-2014. He expressed the need for a thorough investigation adding that the report based on data from the Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC) and figures from pre-shipment inspection reports from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) indicates undeclared crude oil export shortfalls translating to $12 billion, $3 billion and over $800 million to the US, China and Norway respectively. According to the lawmaker, the report showed a $461 million shortfall from a total of 727, 460 metric ton export of natural liquefied gas from Nigeria to seven countries.
Well, everyone is waiting to see how this investigation goes down. Namdas has everyone’s goodwill and prayers, we hope that will suffice.

POSTED BY:OPUOMONI PRIYE
DATE:04/23/2017