Report overlooked N296bn condensate market

monjola sotubo

May 5, 2015 4:37 PM

Nigeria’s condensate market is valued at over $1.5bn which amounts to 296bn if calculated at an exchange rate of N197 to a dollar.

NNPC Group General Manager, Public Affairs Division, Ohi Alegbe

Experts have said that the recently released audit report of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) didn’t account for revenue from condensates made between January 2012 and July 2013.

Condensates are said to sell for about the same price as crude oil and sometimes at a higher price.

“The failings of the report in itself were a candid reflection of the failings of the organisation (NNPC) itself. There are several figures that don’t add up; even the auditors mentioned this,” an industry expert, who chose to remain anonymous, told Punch.

“Furthermore, the auditors completely overlooked the over $1.5bn condensate market – no mention of the revenues or expenditure of revenue from this space. I suspect this was largely due to the narrow scope of work given to them and the paucity of materials/information sources,” he added.

The audit of the NNPC’s accounts was undertaken by PricewaterhouseCooper (PwC) after former Central Bank Governor, Sanusi Lamido accused the oil corporation of not remitting $20 billion into the Federation Account.

The report, which PwC says wasn’t conducted according to acceptable standards, however recommended that only $1.48 billion be refunded.

monjola sotubo