The House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream) said non-implementation of the Federal Government policy on legal metrology services in the upstream sector costs Nigeria $10 billion annually.
Legal metrology services imply a process of standardization, verification and measurement of quantities of crude oil exported from the country by the Independent Oil Companies (IOCs).
The Committee Chairman, Victor Nwokolo, said a public hearing on “non implementation of the Federal Government policy on legal metrology services in the upstream sector,” which held in Abuja yesterday, was aimed at putting a stop to revenue leakages in the system.
Relying on a motion tabled before the House of Reps on December 5, 2017, the lawmakers were contending that the amount of crude oil being shipped out of the country was not properly measured and verified in line with international best practices, thereby short-changing the country of billions of dollars in revenue.
A representative of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr Edet Akpan, said the need for the legal metrology services in the oil sector was to ensure that standards were in line with international best practices.
Asked why the ministry abrogated the contracts for the process that saves the nation such huge revenue, Akpan said the ministry had to cancel the contract with Independent Service Providers (ISPs) over problem of funding.
A representative of the ISPs had earlier told the committee that officials of the ministry had in 2016 stopped them from going ahead with the process of implementing the legal metrology services even as they had a subsisting legal contract to that effect.He added that within the short period they worked, the ISPs were able to uncover sharp practices among the Independent Oil Companies (IOCs), which he said, were brought to the attention of officials of the ministry.
Given that some of invited stakeholders were absent, the committee decided to continue the hearing next week so as to arrive at a conclusion.
