Nigeria said it has recovered about 1.2 trillion naira in unpaid royalty from crude oil sales from International Oil Companies (IOC) and threatened to revoke licences of defaulting firms, minister of petroleum has said.
Emmanuel Kachikwu said the recovery was made possible as a result of automation initiatives by the ministry to track crude exports by the IOCs.
He said oil firms yet to remit their royalty to the government at the expiration of the statutory deadline may lose their licences if they failed to make remittances within the extended timeline.
The junior minister also disclosed that the country generated about $1.5 billion from the renewal of licences.
He said his ministry is speeding up licensing procedure by taking away the discretionary parameters of directors as well as creating a platform for the resolution of issues that may arise.
Kachikwu explained that the automation of many of the processes in the crude oil value chain has aided the tracking of revenue by the government.
The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has initiated the Crude Oil and LNG Tracking (COLT) and other automation to boost government revenue and block leakages in the oil industry.
Kachikwu said the issue of transparency remains key in the oil industry, noting that there are expectations that the new initiatives will address such concerns, especially as it relates to the volume of daily oil production, export, import, and issues of leakages in the system.
He noted that hitherto, the country had always depended on the international oil companies for data to determine the volume of crude oil produced in the country, adding that the new initiative will help the government to enforce regulations, recover its revenues better having known the volume of products produced.
“We have been able to tell where those products have gone to in terms of export, whether they have been able to discharge, and we have also been able to say on a forensic basis whether there are some suspicious movement of those vessels after they have products in them.
“We have been able to tell where those products have gone to in terms of export, whether they have been able to discharge, and we have also been able to say on a forensic basis whether there are some suspicious movement of those vessels after they have products in them.
“We have extended the automation to the downstream sector to be able to capture everything that is brought into this country in terms of importation of refined products and we have also been able to track their distribution. So, for the first time, we have a holistic database, IT-based application that enables us to do that.
“We have also launched the benchmarking system to track expenses to see how we can pull down the cost of producing oil in this country which has been the major challenge for us given the price of crude oil in the world. Unless we are able to do this, we will produce all the oil and make no money out of it.
“This is very helpful to us and we have been able to charge the oil companies to match the best practices internally and collectively, match the best practices externally in terms of oil pricing. We have also been able to explain to you what we do as regards early renewals, and what we have generated both on forcing people to become current on payment of outstanding royalties, and what we have generated in terms of current licences and early renewal basis. Those are the pivots of what we have done today,” he explained.
“We have also launched the benchmarking system to track expenses to see how we can pull down the cost of producing oil in this country which has been the major challenge for us given the price of crude oil in the world. Unless we are able to do this, we will produce all the oil and make no money out of it.
“This is very helpful to us and we have been able to charge the oil companies to match the best practices internally and collectively, match the best practices externally in terms of oil pricing. We have also been able to explain to you what we do as regards early renewals, and what we have generated both on forcing people to become current on payment of outstanding royalties, and what we have generated in terms of current licences and early renewal basis. Those are the pivots of what we have done today,” he explained.
0 comments:
Post a Comment