Nigeria: Royal Dutch Shell Paid Federal Government $5bn in 2015

Meanwhile, a new report by Royal Dutch Shell Plc has revealed that Shell Nigeria paid a total of $4,951,993,936 to the federal government from its operations in the country in 2015, making Nigeria the highest recipient among the 24 countries that received $21.8 billion in payments from the oil multinational during the year under review.

According to a summary of the “Report on Payments to Governments 2015”, which was prepared by Shell and obtained exclusively by THISDAY, the company paid a total of $21,840,825,287 to 24 countries in 2015.

The report showed that the highest payment of $4.95 billion was made to the Nigerian government in the form of taxes, royalties, fees and production entitlements.

The release of the Shell report is coming ahead of the 2013 audit report to be released by the Nigerian Extractives Transparency Industry Initiative (NEITI) today in Abuja.

According to industry sources, the NEITI report will among others, highlight the non-remittance to the Federation Account of dividends running into billions of dollars paid by Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Company to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

In the Shell report, Malaysia received the second-largest payment of $4,410,549.595, followed by Norway, which got $4,156,888,087; Oman –  $2,112,924,584; Iraq – $1,359,249,519; Qatar – $989,657,810; Australia -$878,133,272; Denmark – $576,148,422; Philippines- $486,917,661; China – $459,242,357; Gabon – $353,033,264; and United States – $352,073,695.

Others included Italy – $207,038,856; Egypt – $185,566,882; Canada – $150,648,725; New Zealand – $123,893,867; Brunei Darussalam – $103,937,853; Brazil – $69,477,599; Argentina – $23,067,771; Ireland – $4,877,756; Germany – $4,404,123; Jordan – $3,000,000; Indonesia – $1,000,000; and the United Kingdom, which the report showed paid back $122,900,344 to Shell.

Of the $4.95 billion paid to the Nigerian government, $378,551,263 and $200,638,000 were paid to the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) as royalties and fees, respectively, bringing the total payment made to the regulatory agency to $579,189,263.

Other payments that constituted the $4.95 billion included $717,920,620 paid to the Federal Inland Revenue service (FIRS) as taxes; $291,115 paid into the Federation Account with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN); $46,946,550 paid to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) as three per cent levy; and $3,607,646,387 paid to NNPC as production entitlement.

The $717,920,620 paid to the FIRS included payment in kind of $457,824,860 for 8,996,000 barrels of oil equivalent valued at market price.

A further breakdown of the $4.95 billion payment to the Nigerian government showed that the $3,607,646,387 paid to the NNPC included payment in kind for 114,069,000 barrels of oil equivalent at market value.

Under what Shell referred to as payments for projects in the 1993 Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs), $799,332,160 was paid as production entitlement, $368,870,290 as taxes, and $37,424,320 as royalties on Oil Prospecting Lease (OPL) 212, now Oil Mining Lease (OML) 118 and OPL 219, now OML 135.

The Bonga field, which is operated by Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Ltd (SNEPCo) under a PSC for NNPC, which holds the lease, is in OML 118 (formerly OPL 212).

The massive Bonga field consists of Bonga Main, Bonga South West/Aparo and Bonga North West.

SNEPCo holds a 55 per cent contractor interest in OML 118. The other co-venturers are Esso Exploration & Production Nigeria Ltd (20 per cent), Total E&P Nigeria Ltd (12.5 per cent) and Nigerian Agip Exploration Ltd (12.5 per cent).

OML 135 contains the Bolia and Doro fields, where SNEPCo also holds a 55 per cent contractor interest.

The sum of $368,870,290 included payment in kind of the said amount for 6,996,000 barrels of oil equivalent valued at market price.

Also the $799,332,160 included payment in kind of the said amount for 14,732,000 barrels of oil equivalent valued at market price.

The royalties of $37,424,320 also included payment in kind of the said amount for 703,000 barrels of oil equivalent at market price.

The report also showed that $88,954,570 was paid as taxes for OML 209 under a 1993 PSC, which included payment in kind of the said amount for 2,000,000 barrels of oil equivalent valued at market price.

The federal government also received $1,592,115,125 as production entitlement from Shell Petroleum Development Company’s (SPDC) eastern operation, and this included payment in kind of the said amount for 76,215,000 barrels of oil equivalent value at market price.

SPDC West also paid $798,332,523 as production entitlement and this included payment in kind of the said amount for 15,054,000 barrels of oil equivalent valued at market price.

The sum of $417,866,579 was paid by SPDC shallow water as production entitlement and this included payment in kind of the said amount for 8,068,000 barrels of oil equivalent valued at market price.

Under what Shell also described as entity level payment, SPDC paid $260,095,760 as taxes, $341,126,943 as royalties and $247,875,666 as fees, making a total of $849,098,369.

Shell said it made the payments to the various countries in the form of production entitlements, taxes, royalties, dividends, bonuses, as well as licence fees, rental fees, entry fees and other considerations for licences and/or concessions.

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