Nigeria: Reps Move Against Oil Theft

Nigeria: Reps Move Against Transnationals On Oil Theft

NIGERIA's House of Representatives is currently making frantic efforts to contain transnational oil corporations operating in the country on the worrisome issue of sharp practices in the industry.

AkanimoReports reports on Friday that guarded information available to the Nigeria Customs Services tend to indicate that the oil corporations have been cheating on Nigeria. In a seeming frantic bid to curb the vice, the House Committee on Customs has pledged to take steps to tackle the issue of calibration of the quantity of crude oil exported from the terminals.

The Nigeria Customs Services is claiming that transnational oil corporations are exploiting on the issue of calibration to defraud the country of billions of dollars.

The Customs told members of the House Committee on Customs and Exercise who were on tour of formations in the South-East geo-political zone that the oil companies were exploiting the exclusion of the customs from crude oil terminals to falsify the calibrations of the quantity of crude oil exported from the terminals as the customs was forced to make due with whatever the companies report.

Chairman of the House Committee Mr. Abdullahi Umar Faruk admitted that even their interaction with the Minister of Finance revealed that no one knows how much the country gets from oil and therefore vowed to tackle the calibration issue.

He said they had held a public hearing on Customs and have made far reaching recommendations which will be debated when the house reconvenes, and further assured that they will ensure that Customs was trained and equipped to stop the bleeding.

Continuing, he said oil companies have cashed in on the situation to cheat Nigeria and that the amount so far lost can only be guessed but that it must be colossal, adding that it was wrong for the country to make the Customs rely on the oil companies they are supposed to monitor for welfare and facilities.

Faruk claimed that he has discovered that lack of training and equipment has made it impossible for the Customs to discharge their duties and insisted that they were going to address the issues of training and purchase of helicopters and patrol boats to enable them fly to terminals, monitor calibrations, chase smugglers and increase revenue for the country.

He, however, regretted that at the public hearing they held in Abuja, the tour of the formations and interactions with the officers kept throwing up the issue of lack of monitoring of crude export for the country which leaves the oil majors free to do as they list and return figures they also liked.

According to him, ''we are going to discuss further with Nigerian Customs about the issue of not participating fully as they should at the platforms where Nigerian crude is being loaded. In fact, they must know and account for whatever is exported so that adequate and necessary revenue must be taken for Nigeria.

''One of the problems we found out is that they are executing their work at the mercy of oil majors and this cannot be allowed. We must equip them very well, they must have helicopters to take them to the platforms, they must have patrol and operational boats that will allow them to put these calibrations out of their duty because they cannot be at the mercy of the people they are checking.

''They have r to have their own operational boats and we will definitely give them because you cannot give someone responsibility and expect him to perform when you have not armed him''.

Faruk said the lower chamber of the bi-camaral National Assembly was determined to tackle the issue of oil theft and calibrations, pointing out that they have never fought shy and will do everything to uncover those behind it, correct the anomaly and earn appropriate and right revenue for the country.

On how much Nigeria may have lost from the calibration issue at export terminals, Faruk said, ''there was a time we were asking the former Minister of Finance and she was telling us that nobody, even she as a minister, not even the President of Nigeria knows what Nigeria is earning from oil and this is a sorry state''.

ENDS

© Scoop Media