Why NNPC Should Come Clean on Oil Swap Deals, Says Policy Alert

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has been called upon to publish the traded volumes, payments received by government and status of outstanding liabilities owed the federation from its oil-for-product swap deals with oil and gas commodity trading companies particularly between 2010 and 2014.

Policy Alert, a civil society organisation working to promote economic and ecological justice in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, made the call during a followup engagement in Asaba with journalists it had recently trained on tracking the deals.

The organisation recently organised a two-day capacity building workshop for the media and CSOs in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, with the theme ‘Tracking Beneficial Ownership Data on Nigeria’s Oil Swap Deals’.

The training workshop dwelt extensively on citizen collaboration with relevant national agencies and authorities towards a more transparent and accountable oil and gas revenues in Nigeria through better policy and programme implementation.

However, presenting initial findings from an ongoing research by the organisation at the Asaba exercise, Policy Alert’s Senior Programmes Officer, Mfon Gabriel, highlighted the existence of certain undesirable gaps in the country’s swap deals that require undelayed rectification.

“The swap deals had been characterised by discretionary and undocumented contracting arrangements, absence of competitive bidding, secrecy, under-reporting, and tax avoidance, a situation that has allowed a number of politically exposed persons (PEPs) benefiting from these deals to escape the radar of public scrutiny,” he observed, adding, “Our laws mandate the NNPC Ltd and the downstream regulator to promptly make details of all such new arrangements public.”