CBN Governor, Lamido Sanusi insists $20 BILLION oil money is missing

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Sanusi Lamido Sanusi has insisted that there is an outstanding $20 Billion between what the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) shipped and what it paid to the government.

Mr Sanusi, who was speaking during a presentation at a hearing by the Senate Committee on Finance, said “Out of the $20 billion, there is $6 billion that NNPC says was shipped on behalf of Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), there is $2 billion third party finance; that’s $8 billion and the balance of $12 billion from our books and even from the books of the NNPC submission, is what is outstanding from the domestic crude of the $28 billion that was exported by Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC)”.

Sanusi further noted that “as far as the Central Bank is concerned, the most important point to establish is that there is a difference of $20 billion between what NNPC shipped and what it repatriated”, adding that “we raised observations based on some of these figures they have given.

“We did present documents from Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) and from the Presidency to indicate that in our view, there is no subsidy of kerosene, first of all, and that payment of kerosene subsidy is in violation of a waiting presidential directive” he said.

The Apex bank chief further revealed that “we have also asked questions not about the entire $6 billion from NPDC chairman” insisting that “we asked questions about a specific part relating to oil produced in blocks under strategic alliance agreement with Atlantic Energy”.

He also noted that the apex bank indicated that its concern was not on “whether NPDC is a subsidiary or not, but whether the revenue that was transferred to Atlantic Energy, is revenue that legitimately belongs to the federation account.

He however agreed with the Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, to seek legal opinion on and let the committee decide “whether we are right or wrong” insisting that when the legal angle is established “what belongs to the federation account will go to the federation account and also what goes to NPDC whether it should go to the federation” he said.

Last week, the CBN governor revealed that the total oil sales money not remitted to the Federation Account from January 2012 to July 2013 stood at $20 billion.

In his submission last week, Sanusi said NNPC’s deductions for kerosene subsidy were illegal because President Umaru Yar’Adua issued a presidential directive to stop kerosene subsidy in 2009.