THE House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts has issued a 72-hour ultimatum to eight oil companies to appear before it to defend allegations of failure to remit about N9.4 trillion in royalties to the Federation Account.
The oil firms are among the nine companies scheduled to appear before the subcommittee constituted to investigate non-remittance of royalties contained in the Report of the Office of the Auditor General for the Federation.
Of the nine companies invited to appear before the committee yesterday, only Belema Oil Producing Limited, whose team, led by Managing Director Ahmad H. Sambk, was at the National Assembly.
But the company’s team was asked to return today because of the late arrival of their documents to the committee.
The eight companies that were invited but did not show up are: Addax Petroleum Exploration Nigeria Limited, AITEO Group, All Grace Energy, Amalgamated Oil Company Nigeria Limited, Amni International Petroleum Development Company Limited, Bilton Energy Limited, Britannia-U, and Waltersmith Petroman Limited.
The investigation is based on the report of the Auditor General for the Federation (OAuGF) alleging that the sum was unpaid royalties, concession rentals, and gas flare penalties, as well as other obligations arising from production sharing contracts, repayment agreements, and modified carry arrangements.
The report said: “The Oil Royalty amounting to US$1,742,280,008.32 remained unpaid by some oil companies as at the end of December 2021.
“The sum of US$13,805,135.46 for revenue relating to royalty on gas sales (foreign) still remain outstanding as at December 31, 2021, while the sum of 848,218,163,192.67 was in arrear for gas royalty (local) for the same period.
“Twenty-three operators also failed to pay the sum of US$496,674,967.77, being outstanding Federation Account revenue relating to Gas Flare Penalty, while the sum of US$7,688,880.90.”
Appearing before the committee, the Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), represented by Balarabe Haruna, gave a breakdown of the various sums owed by the individual companies, as contained in the Auditor General’s office report.
