The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has disclosed plans to expand its audit operations in the oil and gas industry to cover trading of the country’s oil by third parties.
A statement from the agency indicated that it held a workshop for relevant government agencies and oil trading companies, where it explained the decision to delve into commodity trading in line with its mandate and compliance with the EITI 2016 global standards. The statement was signed by its Director, Communications and Advocacy, Dr. Orji Ogbonnaya Orji.
Orji thus called on the companies and government agencies involved in commodity trading to carefully study the templates the NEITI has developed in this regard, with a view to internalising the new reporting requirements as part of their respective overall business model.
Various stakeholders equally identified marketing contracts and related agreements; process of transfer of income from sales of equity crude; lifting and other similar transactions as other key areas in commodity trading which NEITI could give adequate attention.