The revelation by Nigeria's auditor
general that $16bn (£11bn) of oil revenue went missing in 2014 has
emphasised the scale of the task facing President Muhammadu Buhari in
his efforts to clean up the oil sector. Neil Ford, an expert on oil,
crime and security in Nigeria, outlines some of the ways in which huge
amounts of money are stolen and assesses the president's chance of
success.
The influence of oil on Nigeria is well known. From the
soils of the Niger Delta to government revenues, it permeates the
country's economy, politics and environment like nothing else.
It
also encourages corruption and organised crime to such an extent that
other African governments warn of the need to avoid becoming "another
Nigeria".
There are many ways of illegally tapping oil revenues,
and crime in the oil sector is easily the second biggest industry in the
country after oil production.
President Buhari was elected last March on a
platform to tackle this crime but similar promises by his predecessors
have had virtually no impact.
The man, who some called Baba
Go-Slow, has taken swift action on one of the biggest problems:
Corruption and inefficiency within the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation (NNPC).
Opaque oil company
The
state oil company is involved in oil production but also regulates the
sector and handles government oil revenues, creating conflicts of
interest and opportunities for theft.
Last May, Mr Buhari chose
Emmanuel Kachikwu as the man to sort it out. As former executive
vice-chairman at ExxonMobil Africa, he is well aware of the Nigerian oil
industry's shortcomings.
Now
as NNPC group managing director and junior oil minister he has replaced
the heads of all eight of the firm's divisions and said the
corporation's monthly losses have been reduced to $15m (£11m).
On 3 March, the government announced that it would
break the NNPC up into different companies to be run on commercial lines
whilst remaining state owned. However, the country's powerful trade
union movement opposes the plans.
Ensuring good governance has
become even more important as oil prices have tumbled and are now
between $30-40 (£21-28) a barrel.
Nigerian oil exports were worth
$78.3bn in 2014, followed by gas at $12.9bn. The next biggest exports
were coffee, tea, cocoa and spices at just $1.2bn.
Oil theft
The theft of oil in the Niger Delta will be an even tougher nut to crack.
Oil
theft - or bunkering as it is known in Nigeria - grew out of protests
against the lack of benefit that people form the Delta were getting from
oil production. They saw little investment and received few skilled
jobs but experienced water, soil and land pollution.
Estimates
vary, but bunkerers now take about 200,000 barrels of crude oil a day
and even more production is kept out of use by attacks on pipelines and
other infrastructure.
As a president from the north, Mr Buhari will find
calming the southern Delta region almost impossible in this divided
country, particularly as some security and political officials have been
accused of being involved in bunkering.
A more recent spin-off of bunkering has been piracy in the waters off Nigeria and neighbouring states.
Pirates have attacked tankers to either rob crew members or take the crude or fuel products for sale elsewhere in the region.
Subsidy fraud
Some of the least reported but most lucrative forms of crime in the oil industry revolve around fuel imports.
Although
Nigeria is an important crude oil exporter, it imports most of its
refined petroleum products and there are many ways to exploit the
subsidies paid on these shipments.
One of the most popular is
called round tripping, where fuel that has already been imported and a
subsidy paid is taken just outside Nigerian territorial waters and back
in again to double the subsidy.
The government has long paid subsidies on more fuel than Nigeria actually consumes.
Recovering stolen money
Mr
Buhari's government is also seeking to recover as much oil money as
possible that was spirited out of the country by corrupt officials and
relatives of former rulers.
Top of the list are the billions of
dollars reputed to be held by relatives of former military leader Sani
Abacha but banking sector secrecy does not make its recovery easy.
Measuring success
The
entire fuel distribution and refining sector will have to be rebuilt
from the ground up, if Mr Buhari is to end the corruption and theft.
A good method of judging his success will be if the NNPC's four refineries are brought back into full use or replaced.
Most fuel imports are only necessary because all
four have been out of use or operated intermittently for many years,
generating a lot of money for those behind the scams.
The enormity
of the task makes it unlikely that the president will manage to tackle
all forms of crime in the oil sector, even if he serves two four-year
terms of office.
Given Nigeria's track record, he would do well to win the battle on even one front.
But his tough reputation on corruption means the chances of success are greater than they have been for many years.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-35754777
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