The Federal Government of Nigeria has $6.1 billion of uncollected monies from operators in the oil and gas sectors.

According to the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), this sum covers outstanding royalties, rents, taxes, and other collectables that should have been remitted to the federal government up till August 2024.

NEITI Executive Secretary, Ogbonnaya Orji revealed this in a meeting with the Senate Committee on Public Accounts on its industry reports for the oil, gas, and mining sectors covering the years 2021, 2022, and 2023.

He urged the government to move to recover these outstanding liabilities to finance its 2025 budget, as it could play a huge role in the actualisation of the Nigerian 2025 budget.

Oil and Gas sector still underperforming

Despite Nigeria earning $831.14 billion from the oil and gas sector in 24 years, Dr Ogbonnaya Orji observed that Nigeria’s oil and gas sector is still underperforming in recent years, the PUNCH reports.

One of the most worrisome trends was the decline of revenues from the oil and gas sector, despite the increase in the global price of the product.

He said, “The oil and gas sector recorded a total revenue of $35.78bn in 2022 but dropped to $30.86bn in 2023.”

Similarly, the oil and gas sector contribution to Nigeria’s GDP has also been on the decline from 7.21% in 2021, to 5.745 in 2022, and down to 5.48% in 2023.

This coincides with a similar decline in gas production from 2.52 billion scf in 2022 and then dropped to 2.49 billion scf in 2023. However, he commended the decrease in crude oil losses within the three years under review, thanks to improved pipeline surveillance by the Armed Forces and security agencies.

From losing 36.6 million barrels of crude in 2022, there was a sharp 78% improvement resulting in the loss of only 7.68 million barrels in 2023. The NEITI boss recommended an ownership and buy-in arrangement with host communities to further reduce crude theft.

He also warned that skilled workers laid off indiscriminately could ultimately turn to pipeline vandalism for survival.

Chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Accounts, Senator Aliyu Wadada, replied that the committee would soon have a public hearing from several industry players, based on the insights from NEITI reports.