How much oil does Nigeria produce?
How much exactly has the country
earned from its oil sales in 2013?
By Soni Daniel
The last appears not to have been
heard on the claim that part of the
money in the Excess Crude Account
(ECA) is missing as Governor Rotimi
Amaechi of River State, yesterday,
faulted the Minister of Finance, Dr
(Mrs) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on the
matter.
In a point by point response to the
position of the minister, who is also
the Coordinating Minister for the
Economy, that the $5 billion allegedly
missing from the ECA had been
shared to the three tiers of
government to make up for the
revenue shortfalls during the
Federation Accounts Allocation
Committee process while part of it
also went for SURE-P payments and
the balance for subsidy payments to
oil marketers, the governor asked
Okonjo-Iweala to shed more light on
subsidy savings since the reduction
in petroleum subsidy, among many
other questions.
Amaechi, who is also the Chairman of
the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF),
had, at the second retreat of the
group, penultimate Saturday, raised
the alarm about the depletion of the
ECA from $9 billion to $4 billion,
saying the Federal Government had
questions to answer about the $5
billion balance.
Okonjo-Iweala debunked the
allegation, saying no money was
missing from the ECA.
In a statement, yesterday, entitled, ‘Dr
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala – $5 billion is
not missing from ECA – Rivers State
Government’s position’, the state
government said that contrary to the
Finance Minister’s claim “that
Amaechi was closely involved and
actively participated in making
requests to the presidency for the
account to be shared for the purpose
of augmenting the regular allocations
from the Federation Account
whenever there was a shortfall,
Governor Chibuike Amaechi and his
colleague-governors have attended
only one meeting where ONE
REQUEST was made for the sharing
of $1billion from the Excess Crude
Account”. Beyond that one meeting,
the statement said, there has been no
other meeting where it was decided
that money from the ECA be shared
among the three tiers of government.
“There is a position of the National
Executive Council’s (NEC) on the
matter of the Excess Crude Account.
This position is that the savings in
the ECA belonging to all the states is
not to be touched. Indeed this is in
tandem with the position of the
Honourable minister that the ECA is
savings for all to be set-aside for the
rainy day and not to be “shared” in
the manner she now seems to
suggest. The Rivers State
Government finds it curious and very
disturbing that our rainy day savings
has been “shared” in complete breach
of the known procedure for doing
such and in what might be
considered an under the table and
clandestine manner,” the statement
said.
“The appropriate procedure as the
Honourable Minster knows is that
usually members of the NEC have to
make recommendations to Mr.
President should there be need
recourse to the Excess Crude account.
The Rivers State Government is
certain that its Chief Executive and
Governor did not participate in any
such meeting where any such
approval was requested or even
discussed and given.”
On the minister’s claim that Rivers
State received N56.2 billion from the
ECA between January and September
2013, the statement said the state
would not have any inkling that the
money it received among other state
governments was funded from the
ECA. “According to a communiqué
issued by the office of the Accountant
General of the Federation after the
June allocation meeting, the sum of
N7.617 billion refunded by NNPC and
the N35.547 billion from the Subsidy
Re-investment Programme (SURE-P)
formed part of the total distributable
revenue for the month. The
communiqué confirmed that the
gross revenue for the month was
N863.026 billion. This was higher
than the N590.777 billion received in
May by N272.249 billion. It said very
unambiguously that the higher
revenue was a result of increased
crude oil production due to the
completion of pipeline repairs in
some terminals. There was also a
significant increase in non-oil
revenue uring the period due to the
receipt of accumulated arrears on
companies,” the statement said.
“Rivers State government therefore
finds it puzzling the suggestion by the
Honourable Minister that the savings
for 2012 has been used to fund the
budget for 2013”.
Posers
Raising posers on Okonjo-Iweala’s
explanation, the statement said: ”For
the purposes of clarity and for
avoidance of doubt, the Rivers State
government may respectfully request
the Honourable Minister to shed
more light on the following:
· How much oil does the country
produce per day?
· Clarification that the benchmark
price for oil in the 2013 budget is $
79?
· Is it a fact that crude oil was sold at
prices that hovered around $110 per
day throughout the year?
· How much exactly has Nigeria
earned from its oil sales in 2013 and
what percentage of the budget is
funded by these receipts?
“The position of the Federal
Government has been that there are
shortfalls in production but does this
position also take into cognisance
the over $30 differential between the
benchmark price of $79 and the
actual sale price which averaged $
110 per barrel during the period. The
position of the Rivers State
Government is that the differential of
over $30 should have been enough to
fund the shortfall in production?
Unfortunately there has been no
accounting for this huge differential.
Perhaps the Honourable Minister may
assist us in putting this in better
perspective”.
‘Piggy bank’
The statement continued: “Governor
Amaechi’s position in Sokoto was
that the ECA is being managed like a
piggy-bank contrary to provisions of
the law and in a manner that does
not allow for transparency and
accountability, a position which the
Honourable Minister’s rebuttal now
seems to confirm, as can be noted in
the third issue she raised in her
response.
“According to her, the SURE-P is
being funded from the ECA. But the
President, in his broadcast, had
stated that SURE-P ‘is designed to
manage and reinvest the Federal
Government’s share of the savings
from the partial reduction of subsidy
on petroleum products.’ It was not
and is not meant to be that SURE-P is
to be funded from ECA nor can the
Federal Government unilaterally
withdraw money from the ECA to
balance payments to oil marketers.
Indeed the statement of the
Accountant General of the Federation
previously quoted gives credence to
this position – ‘N35.547 billion from
the Subsidy Re-investment
Programme (SURE-P)’ formed part of
the total distributable revenue for the
month.’ It has been the
understanding of the Rivers State
government that SURE-P is funded
from the extra money realised from
the pump price of petroleum, which
Nigerians protested against when the
pump price of fuel was raised. Is the
Honorable Minister telling Nigerians
that the SURE-P is now being funded
from the ECA! Might it then be true as
was recently suggested in the
National Assembly that over
N500billion of SURE-P money may
be missing?
“The issues raised by Governor
Amaech were raised purely out of
concern for the need for
accountability and safeguarding the
wealth of future generations of Rivers
people. It is for this purpose and to
this end that we most respectfully
seek clarification of the following.
· How much oil does Nigeria
produce?
· Where is the differential between the
oil pump prices?
· What price is our oil being sold for?
· How much have we earned from our
crude oil sales in the last year?
· What percentage of budget 2013
does our crude oil sales revenue
fund?
· Can the Honourable Minister assist
in shedding more light on the subsidy
savings since the reduction in
petroleum subsidy?
“As a government that is also a major
stakeholder in the administration, we
believe that answers to these very
pertinent questions would put paid to
whatever false or misleading
informationmay have been put out or
peddled in the public domain”.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/11/missing-excess-crude-money-amaechi-raises-questions-okonjo-iweala/

So who do I believe now? I can only sense another breath of fresh lies
and deceit from both parties.
In this case, I think both Amaechi and Iweala are BIGGER CRIMINALS.

This AMAECHI is a one man army.
What happened to the 5 billion dollars

Amaechi may have a point to prove here.... but as usual, all these will be swept under the carpet.

Royal Roy: On a serious note I think Amaechi has raised many salient points backed with facts and figures.


I also believe that Mrs Okonjo-Iweala is over hyped as she has not been too articulate in her responses to issues like these in the past.

I am sure this will be swept under the carpet in due time to come.

Nigeria we hail thee!!!!!!

Okonjo-Iweala has never been articulate in her responses to any national issue, what people don't understand is that prospering as a political office holder is not by Harvard, Cambridge, UCLA, Arbadeen, blah blah blah certificates.

engrfcuksmtin:

what people don't understand is that prospering as a political office holder is not by Harvard, Cambridge, UCLA, Arbadeen, blah blah blah certificates


.

100% on point

JECBOSS: Amaechi may have a point to prove here.... but as usual, all these will be swept under the carpet.

Amaechi´s burning train is just looking 4 someone 2 pull down wih him. This week its GEJ, next week its PEJ and the next its Iwuala. Who will he want to discredit next, I can guess he will take a swip at Dezeni next.