The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), on Thursday, asked the National Assembly to carry out a forensic audit on the “false” claim of diversion and theft of 48 million barrels of crude oil.
There were reports that senior NNPC officials sold 48 million barrels of crude oil to China in 2015.
But the NNPC dismissed the reports as unfounded and total falsehood.
“As far as the NNPC is concerned, no barrel of crude oil is missing as falsely alleged,” the Corporation’s Chief Finance Officer, Umar Ajiya, told a Senate panel at an interactive session on the 2021-2023 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper.
The session was organized by the Senate Joint Committee on Finance and National Planning. Ajiya said the NNPC was very ready to be investigated over the allegation “in form of a commissioning of a forensic audit by the National Assembly at its own cost.”
The Chairman of the joint Committee, Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola (APC, Lagos West), had, in taking up NNPC over the alleged missing barrels of oil, demanded for evidence.
But Ajiya, who represented NNPC GMD, Mele Kyari, said “No ship leaves the country without clearance from the appropriate unit of the Nigerian Navy and there is no way any ship with such alleged stolen crude could escape from the Nigeria shore.”
Meanwhile, Ajiya assured that the $21 production cost NNPC is incurring on each barrel of crude oil would soon be reduced to $13 per barrel.
