A probe by the Nigerian Senate into whether state oil firm NNPC improperly withdrew money expanded with the amount under investigation doubling to over $2.2 billion, a committee said.
The Senate last week voted to probe withdrawals of $1.05 billion by Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), from NLNG, a venture owned by the state oil firm and foreign energy companies, without approval.
The committee led by Senator Bassey Akpan, chairman of Senate committee on gas, said it found more withdrawals in excess of what it set out to investigate.
Akpan asked NNPC and central bank officials to provide documents to back up the withdrawals, carried out between 2016 and 2018.
NNPC officials said documents were being assembled ahead of the next hearing on November 22 and declined to comment further.
Nigeria’s Premium Times newspaper reported NNPC used the portion of NLNG earnings that should have been passed to local and federal state authorities to fund fuel purchases and subsidies during a shortage in late 2017 and early 2018.
The shortages left people queuing for hours at filling stations and saw NNPC spend at least $5.8 billion on fuel imports.
NLNG, which produces liquefied natural gas (LNG) for export, is a joint venture company owned by NNPC and foreign energy firms Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Total SA and ENI.