House of Reps to probe $17bn oil loot

Yakubu Dogara, Speaker House of Representatives

Nigeria’s lower house ordered a probe to investigate whether $17 billion of petroleum and fuel exports were stolen.

Most of the oil and liquefied natural gas ended up in the U.S. and some went to China and Norway, Johnson Agbonayinma, a lawmaker, told the House of Representatives in the capital, Abuja, on Thursday. The missing products include about 58 million barrels of oil and 727,000 tons of LNG, he said.

Speaker of the House Yakubu Dogara will name members for the panel and a date for them to submit a report. The claim is based on comparing data on U.S. oil imports with that on Nigerian oil exports, Agbonayinma said.

President Muhammadu Buhari, who came to power in May 2015, has said that “mind-boggling” sums have been stolen from Nigeria’s oil industry. The economy has been battered by falling prices of oil and gas, which account for about 90 percent of exports and the bulk of government revenue. The economy is heading for its first recession this year since 1991, according to the International Monetary Fund.

The Associated Press reported on Sept. 20 that the government is suing several companies for exporting $12.7 billion of oil to the U.S. illegally between 2011 and 2014.