Oil and Gas Companies Paid $239bn Royalty To Nigeria In 7yrs – NEITI

The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) says 42 oil and gas companies operating in the country paid a total of $293 billion to the Federal Government between 2006 and 2012.

According to the organisation’s Acting Executive Secretary, Dr Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, the money was paid by oil companies as taxes, royalty, dividends etc to the government during the period.

Orji stated this while speaking at the inauguration of NEITI-Companies’ Forum in Lagos. According to him, the NEITI independent report for the period released recently, put the breakdown of the payment as $44.7 billion was paid in 2006, $43.7 billion in 2007, $60.4 billion in 2008 and $30 billion in 2009. In 2010, the companies paid $44.9 billion, $68.4 billion in 2011 and $62.9 billion in 2012.

Orji further disclosed that the payments were made by a combination of 42 oil companies covered by the NEITI audit process during this period.

He said NEITI was trying its best to bring about sanity to the nation’s extraction industry, noting that the era when tax and royalty payments made by companies were a secret at the disposal of the exclusive few was over.

“Nigeria’s membership of the global Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative has enthroned a regime of openness and voluntary public disclosure in the industry,” he stated.