The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation NNPC has been accused of doubling Nigeria’s daily PMS consumption from about 30 million litres to 60 million litres, and in the process paying more on subsidy.

The accusation was made by the Governor’s Forum yesterday during the groups meeting with Vice President Professor Yemi Osinbajo at the Aso Rock villa Abuja.

According to Zamfara state Governor Abdulaziz Yari, chairman of the forum, the federal government was not satisfied with the way remittances are being made because there are so many questions raised on Nigeria, more especially on the 425,000 barrel domestic and 180,000 barrel component of Nigeria from the Joint Venture Partners.

“We met last week with the NNPC and we came and briefed our chairman of the National Economic Council. We raised three issues, one, the issue of royalties. Each and every barrel taken out of the country there is either 17 or 24 percent of it as royalty and there is 17 or 20 percent as tax.

“So, our main concern is that the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), said that the NNPC is not remitting any payment of royalty, what they do is that they transmit direct from the NNPC to the federation account which is not allowed by the law. According to the law that established the DPR, section 196 of the Act said all the royalty should be paid to DPR and then transmits it to the federation account, which is not observed by the NNPC.

“So, we discussed today and we have sorted those ones out. The NNPC will not transmit to federation account with clear distinction that this amount is for royalty and X amount is for taxes, and X amount is profits from the sales. So we achieved that.

“At the same time, NNPC is making payment on behalf of Nigeria on Cash-call contribution and also the NNPC is making payment of cash call arrears of Nigeria’s contribution. But, our main concern is that in 2015, they said about $16.8 billion which is outstanding was not paid by the last administration and they negotiated it down to $5.1 billion according to them.

“What we said specifically is that they should bring to us how much they have paid from 2015 to date and what is outstanding. And we directed them to stop payment until the claims are proven and then we can give further directives. That too was achieved,’ he said while briefing state house reporters after the meeting.

On the issue of cost recovery otherwise called subsidy Yari said before now, the oil was $40 per barrel and now it is about $78 a barrel, so the NNPC was depending largely on importation. According to the forum, the cost is higher than what they are selling at the filling station and they need more money.

“When there was no cost recovery, the NNPC clearly gave us the number of 33 and 35 million litres per day as the consumption of Nigeria. But now with the new regime of cost recovery, NNPC is claiming daily consumption of 60 and 65 million litres per day, which we rejected and said no. So, many of our international partners are saying that even if we are feeding Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana and Niger, we cannot consume more than 35 million liters per day.

“So, we are wondering where the 60 million litres is coming from. So, we are trying to sort that one out, that one is not yet resolved,’ he said.

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