[allAfrica.com] [Africa_2006] FG in Crucial Meeting With Oil Chiefs This Day (Lagos) NEWS February 27, 2006 Posted to the web February 27, 2006 By Mike Oduniyi And Segun James Warri President Olusegun Obasanjo will tomorrow meet with the managing directors and chief executives of oil producing companies in the country, with the audit report on crude oil production and exports top on the agenda. The Niger Delta crisis which escalated yesterday with Ijaw youth militants' attack on Odidi II flowstation belonging to the Shell Petro-leum Development Com-pany (SPDC), is also on the agenda. THISDAY checks weekend revealed that the Aso Rock meeting would be attended by the chief executives of Nigeria's five joint venture partners, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited, Nigerian Agip Oil Company, Chevron Nigeria Limited, Elf Petroleum and Panocean. Others are the managing directors of six indigenous oil producing firms namely Dubri Oil, Conoil, Atlas Petroleum, Express Petroleum, Amni International Petroleum and Moni Pulo Petroleum Deve-lopment Company. Also summoned are the chief executives of four other independent oil producing outfits, Addax Petroleum, Ocean Energy, Petrobras and ConoPhillips. Government sources disclosed that while the president would use tomorrow's meeting to brief the oil chiefs on security situation in the Niger Delta and government's efforts till date, the real agenda for the meeting is the lack of cooperation with the auditors of the Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI), the Hart Group, on their full operations in the country. The NEITI auditors had reported back to the government problems being encountered in getting the oil firms to submit their templates on oil production figures, export volumes, petroleum profit tax and royalties paid to the Nigerian government through the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS). "The report from the auditors is that the oil companies are still not cooperating on the auditing of the oil sector. They reported having problems getting the required data from the oil firms. What they have now is just the financial records and not the physical templates (which indicate differences between a company and DPR data expected to be resolved)," a source said. The non-availability of the data from the oil firms, it was gathered, will affect the overall time schedule given the auditors to complete their jobs. Consequently, the President is expected to emphasise his administration's "transparency programme and the imperative for accelerated audit partnership." To this end, the Minister of Solid Minerals and NEITI Chairperson, Mrs. Obiageli Ezekwesili; the Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Edmund Daukoru; Prof. Charles Soludo, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN); the Chairman of the FIRS, Mrs. Ifueko Omogui; the Accountant General of the Federation, Alhaji Ibrahim Dankwambo; the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Engr. Funsho Kupolokun; and the Director, Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Mr. Tony Chukwueke, are also billed to attend the meeting. Following an initial report, which showed discrepancies in the reports on oil operations in the country by the companies and various government agencies, the NEITI early this month directed the oil to companies deliver by Friday, February 17, new data on oil production as well as exports from Nigeria. The oil firms were also directed to provide the annual volumes of oil, gas and water produced in the past six years. According to the NEITI, the request for the fresh exportable volumes of oil was to be able to reconcile the different figures supplied by the oil companies and government agencies, and also to be able to reconcile royalty payments. Most of the affected companies, according to the NEITI, failed to meet the February 17 deadline to submit the updated net oil templates following reconciliation with the DPR. "Despite the intervention of the Minister for Solid Minerals and Chairperson of NEITI, the covered entities have not provided all the data requested," the NEITI reported. "If the companies adhere to this timetable, this report will be received early enough for NSWG to hold a roundtable on the report by 31 March 2006," it added. Statistics made available to THISDAY at the weekend, showed that for instance, the auditors were yet to receive the templates on oil and gas production volume, PPT payment, VAT payment, payment to the NDDC, capital financing, royalty payment, drilling cost as well as operating and capital costs, from Agip, Addax, NPDC, Chevron, Mobil, Elf, Shell, Panocean and ConocoPhillips. The NEITI last month released the interim report of the first independent audit of Nigeria's oil and gas industry, which revealed serious weaknesses in the way the various government agencies account for oil exports. For instance, while the total amount oil companies claimed to have paid the Federal Government in 2003 and 2004 amounted to $4.719 billion and $8.614 billion respectively, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) record for the same period showed the receipt of $4.822 billion and $8.932 billion. The report of the NEITI auditors represented the first phase of the three- pronged exercise containing verified accounts of all payments and receipts as recorded in the account books of oil companies and relevant government institutions. Meanwhile, Niger Delta militants, in a commando-like operation, at the weekend attacked the Odidi II flowstation belonging to the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC). The militants engaged soldiers guarding the flow station which produces 65,000 barrel of oil per day in a long battle before gaining access to the facilities which they eventually destroyed. Not done with the attack, another set of militants invaded the Beniboye Island which houses the Nigerian Navy's Forward Operating Base (FOB) recently approved by the Federal Government soon after the January attack on EA and kidnap of four expatriates in Bayelsa state. In the operation, the militants destroyed a gas pipeline belonging to Shell before engaging the Naval men in a battle that lasted for many hours. As at press time the casualty figure on both sides could not be ascertained. But a source close to the militants said the Commander of the Joint Task Force (JTF) on the Niger Delta Brig. Gen. Elias Zamani, told the Governor of the State, Chief James Ibori, that the military would no longer fold its hand when attacked by the militants. In a related development, negotiations between the militants and the Delta State government has continued to drag one week after the kidnap of nine expatriate oil workers. Ibori had in his last press briefing at the weekend said he had been under pressure from the governments of the countries whose citizens were held. He said he had given them assurances that the hostages were well and would be released soon.   =============================================================================   Copyright © 2006 This Day. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). =============================================================================