By Nathaniel Zaccheaus, Abuja
The Senate stated that it has uncovered over $200 billion in unaccounted proceeds from crude oil sales between 2015 and 2023.
It said it has approved sweeping measures to recover the funds and prosecute those involved in what lawmakers described as one of Nigeria’s largest financial crimes.
This followed the adoption, on Wednesday, of the interim report of the Senate Ad-hoc Committee on Crude Oil Theft, which investigated the incessant acts of oil theft in the Niger Delta.
The report revealed a complex web of discrepancies, weak institutional oversight, and systemic collusion that have resulted in Nigeria missing out on substantial oil revenues over the years.
The Committee’s chairman, Senator Ned Nwoko (Delta North), who presented the report at plenary, stated that findings from local and international forensic investigations revealed substantial discrepancies between what was produced, exported, and what was officially recorded as proceeds by government agencies.
According to the report, domestic investigations revealed unaccounted crude sales differentials of approximately $22 billion.
Additionally, another $81 billion was identified as a discrepancy between the crude oil proceeds declared by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and those reported to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for the period between 2016 and 2017.
More damning, the Committee’s forensic consultants in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada projected a cumulative total of over $200 billion in unaccounted oil revenue within the eight years under review.
The report warned that unless Nigeria immediately activates recovery mechanisms, those funds may be permanently lost to foreign accounts and complicit international traders.
The Senate launched the investigation following a motion it adopted on October 10, 2023, to probe the alarming rise in crude oil theft and the individuals responsible for it.
The Committee was reconstituted in February 2025 after the death of its initial chairman, Senator Ifeanyi Ubah, and expanded its inquiry to cover both local and offshore transactions.
Nwoko stated that the probe entailed extensive document reviews, interactions with regulators, host communities, oil majors, and stakeholders.
He lamented that the suspension of the Weights and Measures Department’s oversight functions under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021 crippled accountability in oil measurement, allowing for massive underreporting and theft.
The Committee identified several enablers of the theft, including poor inter-agency coordination, use of unverified measuring instruments, weak enforcement mechanisms, and the failure to implement the Host Communities Development Trust Fund (HCDTF) as stipulated by the PIA.
It further noted that the absence of a special court to prosecute oil-related crimes had emboldened criminals and contributed to the culture of impunity in the sector.
Beyond financial implications, the Committee also drew attention to the environmental cost of oil theft and poor decommissioning practices.
It reported that many abandoned oil wells across the Niger Delta continue to leak crude and gas, poisoning the ecosystem and threatening the livelihoods of host communities.
Despite these challenges, the report noted a 9.5 per cent increase in crude production, rising from 490.95 million barrels in 2022 to 537.57 million barrels in 2023, attributing the modest improvement to enhanced surveillance and operational coordination among security agencies and oil companies.
In its recommendations, the Senate urged the Federal Government to immediately empower the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) to enforce global measurement standards at all production sites and export terminals.
Alternatively, it proposed reinstating the Weights and Measures Department under the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment to the upstream sector, equipped with modern technology to ensure transparent measurement and reporting.
To curb theft, the lawmakers called for the deployment of drones and other unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for real-time monitoring of pipelines, export terminals, and critical oil infrastructure.
They also proposed the establishment of a Maritime Trust Fund to strengthen surveillance capacity, logistics, and infrastructure in the nation’s waterways, which have become conduits for crude smuggling.
To ensure swift justice, the Committee recommended creating a special court for the prosecution of oil thieves and their collaborators, as well as the full implementation of the Host Communities Development Trust Fund to reduce agitation and sabotage in oil-producing areas.
The Senate further advised that all abandoned or decommissioned oil wells should be handed over to the NUPRC, which would allocate them to modular refineries to increase domestic refining capacity and discourage illegal refining.
Crucially, the Committee sought the Senate’s mandate to track, trace, and recover all stolen crude oil proceeds, both within Nigeria and abroad, through a coordinated international effort involving financial intelligence and law enforcement agencies.
According to the report, forensic audits have already confirmed the existence of at least $22 billion, $81 billion, and $200 billion in missing crude oil revenue, which must be recovered “for the benefit of Nigerians.”
Lawmakers across party lines described the findings as “a wake-up call” and commended the Committee for exposing what they called a “monumental economic crime.”
They urged the Federal Government to treat the issue as a national emergency, noting that recovery of the stolen funds could reduce Nigeria’s debt burden and close the budget deficit gap.
The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, praised the Committee for what he called “a courageous and thorough investigation,” assuring that the Senate would ensure the full implementation of the recommendations.
With the report’s adoption, the Ad-hoc Committee will now commence the second phase of its assignment, a global recovery operation aimed at tracing and repatriating stolen oil proceeds hidden in foreign accounts.
