The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency said on Friday that it had paid a total of N3.65trn to petroleum marketers as subsidy for petroleum products in the last six years.
A total of N1.43trn out of the N3.65trn was paid to over 100 marketers in 2011 alone, according to the Senate Joint Committee on the investigation of the fuel subsidy scheme.
The amount paid in 2011 was about 39.1 per cent of the total amount paid to the marketers in the last six years.
The figure available to the committee on payments made in 2011, also contradicted the one presented to it by the PPPRA, which is N1.348trn.
The difference of about N980m was, however, not reconciled as the PPPRA Executive Secretary, Mr. Rejinald Elijah, said some of the figures presented by the committee "did not quite tally."
Some of the oil companies mentioned by the committee to have received the subsidy money included Oando Nigeria Plc, which received N228.506bn; MRS Ltd., N224.818bn; Enak Oil & Gas, N19.684bn; Conoil, N37.960bn; Bovas & Co. Nig. Ltd., N5.685bn, and Obat, N85bn.
Also, Integrated Oil and Gas, which was represented by a former Minister of Interior, Capt. Emmanuel Iheanacho (retd.), received a total of N30.777bn in 2011, while IPMAN Investment Ltd got N10.9bn.
According to the committee’s chairman, Senator Magnus Abe, Africa Petroleum Plc got N104.83bn; AMP Petro-energy, N11.4bn; Akor Plc, N24.11bn; A.Z. Petroleum, N18.13bn; Capital Oil, N22.42bn and Dozie Oil and Gas, N3.37bn.
The list also included, Mobil Oil Plc, N18.60bn; Matrix Energy, N12.612bn; Ford Oil, N8.502bn; North West Petroleum and Gas, N46.27bn; NIPCO Plc, N23.2 bn; Ontario Oil, N4.9bn; Origin Oil and Gas, N2.69bn; Bill and Ocean Energy, N1.77bn.
Elijah also rejected the N450bn kerosene subsidy owed the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation by the Federal Government, saying that it was captured in the agency’s books.
The committee also accused the PPPRA of a breach of the guidelines when it allowed marketers, who were not eligible, to participate in the importation of petroleum products.
Senator Abubakar Saraki, who interrogated PPPRA on the issue, noted that the guidelines required operators to be registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission and also possess tank farms, but the PPPRA allowed those without tank farms to participate in the process.
Also, the committee discovered that 73 out of about 100 marketers, that imported petroleum products, benefited from the subsidy without depots contrary to the guidelines.
The guidelines require that the operators should have a depot with a capacity not less than 5,000 metric tonnes.
Elijah, however, noted that he was not in office when the guidelines were changed, noting that he could not answer the questions since he was under an oath.
The Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Austin Oniwon, told the panel that whereas a locally refined barrel of petrol cost $5, with a subsidy of N11.85 per barrel, the independent marketers were being subsidised with N77, which amounted to N138.71 per litre and N12,243 per barrel.
The committee adjourned for one week to enable the ministry of finance and other stakeholders to put together their documents for presentation.
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