Abuja, July 13, 2025 – The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has filed a suit against the NNPCL for its inability to account for over N825 billion and $2.5 billion meant for the rehabilitation of local refineries.
It said it filed the suit, no FHC/L/MISC/722/25, at the Federal High Court in Lagos on Friday, July 11, 2025.
According to a statement it issued on Sunday, the suit followed allegations contained in the 2021 audited report by the Auditor-General of the Federation which was made public on November 27, 2024.
It said the report raised issues over unaccounted oil revenues and unauthorised deductions linked to refinery repairs and crude sales between 2016 and 2021.
In the suit, SERAP urged the court to compel the NNPCL to disclose the status of the missing funds, recover and remit them to the Federation Account, and hold accountable anyone found culpable.
The suit reads in part: “According to the recently published 2021 audited report by the Auditor General of the Federation (AGF), the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) failed to account for over N825 billion and USD$2.5 billion of public funds meant for ‘refinery rehabilitation’ and repairs, and other oil revenues.
“The Auditor-General fears that the money may be missing.”
“The NNPCL reportedly failed to account for over N82 billion [N82,951,595,510.47] meant for ‘refinery rehabilitation and repairs.’ The ‘money was deducted from the sale of Crude Oil and Gas between 2020 and 2021’.”
“The Auditor-General fears the money may be missing. He wants the money recovered and remitted to the Federation Account. He also wants the NNPCL ‘to ensure that the amounts due for the Federation Account are not subjected to any deductions before remittance of net.’”
“The NNPCL also reportedly failed to account for over N343 billion [N343,642,598,726.51] ‘being proceeds from domestic crude sales.’ The ‘money, meant for ‘pipelines maintenance and management costs, was unilaterally deducted from the gross domestic crude sales.
“The Auditor-General fears ‘the money may have been diverted. He wants the money recovered and remitted to the treasury. He also wants the NNPCL to hand over those suspected to be involved to the EFCC and ICPC.
“The NNPCL also reportedly failed to account for over N83 billion [N83,659,813,739.99] ‘being miscellaneous income from the NNPC joint venture operations from 2016 to 2020. The ‘money was withdrawn from the CBN/NNPC sinking fund account [a suspense account].
“The Auditor-General is concerned that this practice ‘has led the Federation to resort to borrowings.’ He wants ‘the money recovered and remitted to the treasury.
“The NNPCL also reportedly failed to account for over N204 billion [N204,853,744,047.39] ‘being unjustified deductions from the oil royalties for 2021.’ The ‘money was due to the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) now Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).
“The Auditor-General fears ‘the money may have been diverted.’ He wants the money recovered and remitted to the treasury.
“The NNPCL also reportedly failed to account for over N3.7 billion [N3,748,581,281.27] ‘being money purportedly paid to a Company as a shortfall on sales of MT cargo of PMS.’ The Auditor-General fears the money may be missing.
He wants the money recovered and remitted to the treasury.”
“The NNPCL also reportedly failed to account for over N28 billion [N28,654,179,867.00] ‘being outstanding bridging allowance from NNPC retail for 2021.’”
“The NNPCL failed to account for over N13.5 billion [N13,5559,658,148.91] ‘being outstanding bridging allowance claims from three major oil marketers in 2021.’”
“The Auditor-General is concerned that this ‘may have resulted in difficulty in funding the 2021 budget.’ He wants
‘the money recovered from both the NNPC retail and the major oil marketers and remitted to the Federation Account.’”
“The NNPCL also reportedly failed to account for over N15 billion [N14,134,947,949.80 and N1,087,533,332.62] ‘being outstanding revenues from debts owed by twenty-six marketers for 2021.’ The Auditor-General wants ‘the money recovered from the oil marketers and remitted to the Federation Account.’”
“The NNPCL reportedly failed to account for over $29.6 million [$29,648,970.36] being outstanding royalties payable to the Department of Petroleum Resources CBN account.’ The Auditor-General is concerned this ‘may have resulted in difficulty in funding the 2021 budget.’ He wants the money recovered.’”
“The NNPCL failed to collect over $2 billion [$2,260,448,992.45] ‘being outstanding oil royalties from oil companies for 2021’, and failed to collect over N48 billion [N48,218,163,192.67] ‘also being outstanding oil royalties from oil companies.’”
