Nigerian Senate Approves Oil-Theft Probe Report, Orders Global Tracing of Missing Proceeds

Overview

• Lawmakers adopted the ad-hoc committee’s interim report presented by Senator Ned Nwoko and authorized a second phase to track and trace stolen crude proceeds internationally.
• The report outlines divergent loss estimates, including consultant projections of over $200 billion, references to more than $300 billion in possible losses, a local differential of about $22 billion, and an $81 billion shortfall in 2016–2017 between NNPC and CBN figures.
• Several senators, echoed by Senate President Godswill Akpabio, said any actual recovery should be handled by enforcement agencies such as the EFCC or ICPC after the committee identifies losses, actors, and locations.
• Recommendations include empowering NUPRC to enforce international measurement standards, reinstating Weights and Measures oversight, deploying UAV and advanced surveillance, creating special courts, implementing the Host Communities Development Trust Fund, ceding abandoned wells to NUPRC, and establishing a Maritime Trust Fund.
• The probe blames weak inter-agency collaboration and PIA-related measurement gaps for enabling diversion, highlights environmental harm in the Niger Delta, and notes a 9.5% production rebound in 2023 to 537.57 million barrels.