https://www.thecable.ng/nnpcs-60m-litres-daily-petrol-consumption-figure-wrong-says-customs/amp

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has faulted claims by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited that Nigerians consume “60 million litres of petrol daily”.

Hammed Ali, comptroller-general, Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), said this on Thursday during a session with the house of representatives committee on finance on the 2023-2025 medium-term expenditure frame and fiscal strategy paper (MTEF/FSP).

Ali said he wondered “why NNPC, which put Nigeria’s daily fuel consumption at 60 million litres, lifts 98 million litres into the market”.

Reacting to questions by the committee on the proposed subsidy spending for 2022, Ali said the issue is about the daily petroleum consumption estimations

"I remember that last year, we spoke about this. Unfortunately, this year, we are talking about subsidy again. The over N11 trillion we are going to take as debt, more than half of it is going for a subsidy,” he said.

“The issue is not about the smuggling of petroleum products. I have always argued this with the NNPC. If we are consuming 60 million litres of PMS per day by their own computation, why would you allow the release of 98 million litres per day? If you know this is our consumption, why would you allow that release?

“Scientifically, you cannot tell me that if I fill my tank today, tomorrow, I will fill the same tank with the same quantity of fuel.

If I am operating a fuel station today and I go to Minna depot, lift petrol and take it to Kaduna, I may get to Kaduna in the evening and offload that fuel. There is no way I would have sold off that petrol immediately to warrant another load.

“So, how did you get to 60 million litres per day? That is my question. The issue of smuggling, if you release 98 million litres in actual and 60 million litres are used, the balance should be 38 million litres. How many trucks will carry 38 million litres every day? Which road are they following and where are they carrying this thing to?”

The comptroller-general said the customs is doing its best to fight against smuggling, adding that more support, collaboration and provision will go a long way.

He also explained that the service was not remitting its operating surplus of seven percent because it is used for operations and payment of its staff members’ salaries.

“Nigeria Customs Service is the only organisation today that has to fight to collect revenue. It is the only organisation that losses its men in the course of collecting revenue and enforcing anti-smuggling provisions,” he added.

“It is the only organisation that raises its funds on a regular basis.

“As a result of this, the government agreed to give us a seven percent cost of collection. By my understanding, the cost of collection is paying for our labour. That is what we live on, that is what we use to pay our salaries, and fund our capital and overhead. That is our sole income.

At the session, the lawmakers also queried the sums of N6.7 billion spent on legal matters out of N7.5 billion approved in the 2021 appropriation act, as well as the N9.2 billion proposed in the 2023 budget.

https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2022/08/30/nigerias-naval-chief-disputes-nnpcl-petroleum-ministrys-oil-theft-figures/

Nigeria’s Chief of Naval Staff (CNS), Vice Admiral Awwal Gambo, yesterday disputed oil theft figures from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and the ministry of petroleum, insisting that it wasn’t possible to steal that quantity of oil in a day.

Although the figures are usually estimates, the NNPCL and the ministry have variously put the total quantity of barrels stolen per day at between 200,000 to 400,000 per day.

But Gambo, while speaking last night on Channels Television, insisted that the data may not only be from oil theft, maintaining that the government authorities were making the error of calculating losses due to force majeure as well as shut-ins as part of oil being stolen.

“Inasmuch as there is no perfect system, the phenomenon of oil theft and losses must be properly de-conflicted in order to profer lasting solutions to the malaise which is currently bedevilling our economic resources.

Here, we need to understand the differences between oil theft and of course, oil loss. While oil theft is siphoning oil from vandalised pipes into barges, oil losses occur when there is non-production, especially during shut-ins and force majeure as the federal government does not earn the desired revenue it should,” he argued.

According to him, oil losses could be as a result of metering errors on the operating platforms, stressing that the volume of crude oil shut-ins from non-production are often added to oil theft data instead of accounting for them as oil losses by the authorities.

"This should not be. Some sources also claim that about 20,000 to 200,000 barrels per day are being considered stolen. Most of these claims are definitely outrageous and they are unrealistic,” he added.

Gambo stated that a close analysis of the alleged oil theft data showed that it would be impossible to steal that volume of oil without being detected.

“Let us even briefly analyse this. For instance, 100,000 barrels of crude oil is equivalent to 15,800,000 litres of crude , which requires a five-ton barge making 3,160 trips per day to convey this product out of the creeks.

How do you pass the estuaries with this? So, let’s assume now you even have many barges because of the time required to carry out this product. That means you entirely close the navigable waters heading out to sea, through the estuaries, to embark them or to transit them into a mother vessel that will eventually take them out of the country.

“Of course, this is most unlikely considering the heightened presence of security agencies in the maritime environment as well as the launch of the subsisting operations by the Nigerian Navy, including of course, the deployment of the maritime domain awareness facilities,” Gambo maintained.

In recent times, the navy had been accused by Nigerians of being complicit in the theft of Nigeria’s crude, which had led to the country being barely able to produce 65 per cent of its Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) quota.

While Nigeria’s allocation in July was 1.8 million barrels per day, the country was only able to produce a paltry 1.083 million barrels per day. This has negatively impacted the Nigerian economy with the value of the naira falling to an arguably all-time low of over N700.