A total of 222,437,870 barrels of crude oil was unaccounted for by the Nigerian government in the period between 2004 and 2014, a report by the watchdog, Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI), has revealed.

At an average cost of $100 per barrel over the period, the country is estimated to have lost a total sum of $22.04 billion, owing to her inability to account for the said volume of oil between 2004 and 2013.

Zanaib Ahmed, the NEITI executive secretary, who spoke at a management workshop, with the theme, “Fluid Accounting and Metering Issues in the Nigerian Oil and Gas industry” organised by the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationist (NAPE), said that the agency is confronted with different production figures, as it gets different figures from both the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and oil companies.

Ahmed, who was represented by Tariye George, general manager, Technical Services, however said efforts were currently being made to reconcile areas where these differences existed.

She further said crude oil losses also occurred through the meters at the terminals, and therefore called on government to pay urgent attention to the need to have functional meters at the export terminals.

She further said that the agency was doubtful about the figures of losses alleged by oil companies, and expressed the opinion that it would be difficult for some of the companies to sustain their businesses if the figures were factual.

She stressed that good hydrocarbon measurement was hinged on three legs – fiscal regime, metering infrastructure and regulation. “Crude oil production figures from the producing entities need to be tied to the volume that passed through available metering infrastructure for proper accountability,” she said.

•Adapted from a Business Day report. Photo shows Zanaib Ahmed, the NEITI executive secretary, who made the allegation.