Nigeria earned $21bn from oil, gas in 2017 - NEITI

Nigeria earned $21 billion from the oil and gas sector in 2017. The figure showed a 23 per cent increase from the 2016 figures of $17.05 billion and 15 per cent lower than 24.79 billion inflows recorded in 2015.

This was contained in the 2017 oil and gas industry report released yesterday by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) in Abuja.

The audit was conducted for NEITI by SIAO & Partners, an indigenous accounting and auditing firm.

A breakdown of the financial flows by revenue streams showed that crude oil and gas sales topped the table with about $10.19bn, while other financial flows accounted for about $10.13bn.

Flows to other entities like the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Nigeria Content Development Monitoring Board (NCDMB) etc were $669.05million.

In a five - year comparison of revenue flows from the oil and gas sector, the report revealed that “There was a steady decline in year-on-year revenues from 2013 to 2016, with the sharpest drop of 55% in 2015 compared to the preceding year. The year under review experienced a 23% increase in revenues 23% from $17.055billion in 2016 to $20.988billion in 2017”.

In effect, 2017 witnessed a halt in the steady revenue decline the sector has experienced since 2013.

Inflows from the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) as dividend, interest and loan repayment were $834m. This indicates a significant increase of 114 per cent from the 2016 figures of $390million.

The report further pointed out that average crude oil price was higher in 2017. It was sold for an average of $54.44 as against the $43.73 in 2016, and this signifies an increase of 24.5%.

According to the NEITI report, out of the 690.465m barrels (bbls) of crude oil produced in 2017, a total of 688.291mmbls was lifted. Though marginal, this represented an increase from the 668.147mmbls lifted in 2016.

The report also showed that NNPC lifted a total of 241 million barrels (mbbls) of crude oil on behalf of the federation. A breakdown of the liftings shows that federation exports accounted for 135million barrels while the domestic crude liftings accounted for 106million barrels.