The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has revealed that the country earned $741.5bn and N635.3bn from the oil/gas and solid minerals sectors respectively in a period of about 21 years.
The NEITI, through its Executive Secretary, Ogbonnaya Orji, announced on Wednesday at a stakeholder meeting that the earnings were between 1999 and 2020.
“These earnings were between the years 1999-2020 (oil and gas) and 2006-2020 (solid minerals sector earnings)”, it said.
In addition, NEITI reports have disclosed that Nigeria lost over 619.7 million barrels of crude oil valued at $46.16bn or N16.25tn from 2009 to 2020 from theft and sabotage.
Nigerian oil was discovered in 1956, and the country’s production commenced in the late 1950s. The oil industry has grown steadily to become a global behemoth, with a few exceptions owing to economic conditions.
Nigeria’s revenue from its mineral resources has been affected lately by industrial scale of oil theft in Niger Delta and increasing cases of illegal mining in some other parts of the country, notably in Zamfara state.
“So far, NEIT! has conducted a total of 13 cycles of reconciliatory reports in the oil and gas sector and 11 cycles of reports in the solid minerals sector. These reports have disclosed a total revenue earnings to the government of $741.48bn from the oil and gas sector and N635.3bn from the solid minerals sector.
“This amounts to losing over 140,000 barrels of crude valued at $10.7m daily. Furthermore, NEITI has reported on subsidy payments from the years 2005 to 2021 and its huge negative consequences to the nation”, NEITI said.
Orji stated that in these reports, it was revealed that Nigeria had spent $74.39bn, “which translates to N13.7tn. By the above figures, Nigeria spent an average of N805.7bn annually, N67.1bn monthly or N2.2bn daily”.
Mineral fuels, oils, and distillation products account for over 89 percent of Nigeria’s total export value. The export of these resources was over 42 billion dollars in 2021. Nigeria is the second-largest oil reservoir in the world and on the continent of Africa.