The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative has revealed that operators in the country’s oil and gas sector owe the Federal Government a staggering $6.1 billion in outstanding liabilities as of August 2024.
These debts include unpaid royalties, taxes, rents, and other revenues due for collection.
NEITI has called on the government to prioritize the recovery of these funds to help finance the 2025 national budget.
The Executive Secretary of NEITI, Dr. Ogbonnaya Orji, made this recommendation while addressing the Senate Committee on Public Accounts.
He presented findings from the agency’s reports on the oil, gas, and mining sectors covering the years 2021, 2022, and 2023.
In a statement issued by NEITI’s Director of Communications and Stakeholders Management, Mrs. Obiageli Onuorah, Orji lamented that despite some progress, Nigeria’s oil sector is yet to realize its full potential.
“A total sum of $6.1bn as outstanding liabilities owned by the oil and gas industry to the federation as of August 2024. These are made up of outstanding royalties, taxes, rents, and other collectible revenues due to be collected into government coffers,” Orji said.
He added, “At a time when the country is mobilising resources to meet its budget expenditures, recovering these revenues by the relevant agencies will be a huge relief to the government.”
Highlighting some positives, Orji noted that crude oil losses significantly dropped by 78% in 2023 compared to the previous year.
“The NEITI report showed that Nigeria lost 36.6 million barrels of crude oil in 2022 while 2023 records indicated a significant drop to 7.68 million barrels,” he said. He attributed this reduction to coordinated security efforts led by the Office of the National Security Adviser, the Armed Forces, and other security agencies, which improved surveillance of national pipelines.
Orji recommended fostering stronger ties with host communities to combat crude oil theft, while warning against the dangers of indiscriminately laying off skilled workers.
He explained that unemployed workers with technical expertise may turn
