JVC: Nigeria owing oil companies $5.1bn – NNPC

Facts emerged on Thursday that Nigeria is currently owing International Oil Companies $5.1 billion in the Joint Venture Cash Call business arrangement.

Also, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) denied any form of mismanagement or stealing from the $3.2billion allegedly withdrawn from the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) account from 2015 till date.

The $5.1billion debt incurred by Nigeria in the JVC business arrangement with International Oil Company (IOCs) on oil exploration, came to the fore when the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of NNPC, Alhaji Isiaka Abdulrasaq, explained to the Senate Committee on Gas on what Joint Venture Cash Call stands for and how it is being run.

The NNPC CFO, in his explanation, told the committee that the JVC is a business arrangement between the government of Nigeria and IOCs.

According to him, while Nigeria controls 60 per cent of the business venture, the IOCs control 40 per cent.

“The problem, however, is that before this government came on board in 2015, Nigeria, which holds 60 per cent of shares in the joint business, for many years, did not contribute its own required capital into it, but only collecting its equity in form of revenues, which made the country to as at 2015, have $6.8 billion unpaid capital into the venture.

“But the present government, in 2016, succeeded in getting 35 per cent discount from the unpaid capital, amounting to $1.9 billion from the unpaid capital, making the country to be owing the IOCs $5.1billion now,” he explained.

On the alleged $3.2 billion withdrawn from the NLNG account by NNPC within the last three years, the CFO said there was no mismanagement in any of the withdrawals made.

According to him, based on available records with them, only 13 withdrawals made from the account totalling $1.2 billion.

He lamented that not less than seven out of the IOCs dealing with NNPC have been apprehensive on continuity of their business operations as a result of bogus figures being bandied about on withdrawals from the NLNG account.

However, the committee through its Chairman, Senator Albert Bassey Akpan (PDP Akwa Ibom North East), ordered the NNPC CFO to submit approving documents for all the withdrawals by Tuesday next week.

“We are not saying any money has been stolen. What we are doing is clarifying processes of expenditures made from the account with a view  to making management of the account more transparent and beneficial to Nigerians,” he said.

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