The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Ola Olukoyede warned all industry players, oil and gas companies and relevant government agencies that refusal or resistance to comply fully with the annual NEITI Industry Audit process is considered costly mistake adding that where the work of NEITI stops marks the beginning of EFCC investigations.
Speaking as special guest while presenting a NEITI Report in Abuja, Mr Olukoyede revealed that the current NEITI Report on the Oil and Gas sector is now with the commission for further necessary action.
He disclosed that just before the event, he signed off a remittance of a recovery of N1 billion naira to the beneficiary agency of government courtesy of NEITI Report findings.
The chairman commended NEITI for its credible data and promised to deepen cooperation with the agency.
The Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Downstream, Hon Ikenga Ugochinyere announced that a private member bill to amend NEITI Act 2007 to align with the current realities sponsored by him on the floor of the House has already been scaled through first reading.
He advised all stakeholders in the NEITI process to partner with his committee to amend the NEITI law.
The civil society representative on the NEITI National Stakeholders Working Group (NSWG), Dr Erisa Danladi used the forum to remind the civil society and the media that information and data for the 2022 and 2023 Oil and Gas Industry put in the public domain has provided enough tools for engagements and investigation through constructive advocacy.
The Executive Secretary, NEITI, Dr Orji Ogbonnaya Orji used the opportunity to thank President Bola Ahmed Tinubu Administration for supporting NEITI through his policy of non-interference.
He welcomed the administration’s support for the agency’s Open Data policy and announced that NEITI has embarked upon establishing a Data Centre to serve as a one-stop shop for information and data on Nigeria’s extractive sector.
Daily Trust reports that over 5 trillion standard cubic feet of gas were produced in Nigeria in the last two years.
A breakdown shows that 2.521 trillion standard cubic feet were produced in 2022 representing a decline when compared with 2.744 trillion standard cubic feet produced in 2021 while in 2023, the gas sector recorded a total production of 2.491 trillion standard cubic feet representing only 1% drop in gas production when compared with the total production recorded in 2022.
These information and data were contained in the latest oil and gas industry independent report released to the public in Abuja by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI).
From the Reports, NEITI further disclosed that a five (5) year trend analysis (2019 – 2023) of gas production in Nigeria showed that the highest production volumes of 3.048 trillion SCF was recorded in 2019 and the lowest of 2.491 trillion standard cubic feet was produced in 2023. This represented an 82.73% increase in the country’s production capacity last year.
On gas utilisation, the NEITI Report tracked that a total of 137.361 billion standard cubic feet of gas was used as fuel in 2022 from data provided by only 32 gas companies.
On the contribution of the oil and gas industry to employment opportunities, during the period under review, the NEITI findings showed that only six thousand, seven hundred and twenty eight 6,728 persons were employed in the sector out of which (83%) were men while only 17% were women.
In the same direction, the sector witnessed a steady decline in the sector’s contributions to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
A trend of the contribution of oil and gas sector to GDP in Nigeria from 7.32% to 4.34% in 2022 and 5.75% to Nigeria’s total GDP of N 202.365 trillion (US$478.06 billion) as at last year 2023. The report attributed the decline to dwindling oil production arising from insecurity, oil theft and sabotage.
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