Juliet Akoje in Abuja.
The House of Representatives has unravelled how oil companies in Nigeria export crude for refined petroleum products yet, fail to account for the by-products.
At the resumption of the hearing of the House special adhoc committee on petroleum products subsidy regime in Nigeria from 2017 to 2021, the lawmakers were shocked upon discovery that operating companies don’t account for by-products.
The lawmakers lamented that despite the cost of the by-products which they noted was higher than crude itself, oil companies were shortchanging Nigeria by failing to give account of what becomes of the products.
The head, business development of Hyde Energy, an oil company, Abdulwahab Useni who appeared before the committee stood his ground as he refused to disclose to the lawmakers how the company makes profit from crude export and import of refined products.
Despite pressure from members of the committee, Useni who stood in for the managing director of the company, also refused to explain to the lawmakers what happens to the profit of the crude by-products.
This compelled Hon, Isiaka Ibrahim to call for a closed-door investigation when invitees failed to make open, relevant information concerning financial transactions.
The committee members as a way of ascertaining both the export and import value of crude and refined products sought to know from Hyde Energy, the countries it exports its crude to.
According to the lawmakers, this will enable the committee to write to embassies of the countries in question to uncover details of such transactions.
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