Other oil producing countries can tell how much they produce. The oil majors were understandably reluctant to talk to us last week , unable to give overall national production figures. An industry operator told us last week that "there is an iron-clad interest in keeping it all under wraps."
The first significant public attempt to audit Nigeria's oil production was undertaken by the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, or NEITI, which was established at the height of the Obasanjo administration's short-lived push for reform of our government, politics, and economy.
When NEITI audited the industry for five years, between 1999 and 2004, it also found some discrepancies in the figures. "The audit found that the Accountant General of the Federation, the owner and manager of the federal government accounts with the CBN, was unable to exercise control over information flows or anticipate problems or shortfalls," according to NEITI.
"The auditor's estimates of some royalty liabilities differed from those of the producers. The companies computation methods also differed from the DPR's(department of petroleum resources.) It was reported that the DPR lacked the skills and technical facilities to regulate efficiently, and the royalty law was declared too vague."
The report goes further to add, "Some companies lacked independent confirmation of the expenses they set against tax, and some expenses may have been over-stated to minimise tax payments, FIRS (federal inland revenue services) was not proactive in assessing the companies' tax liabilities, and its record-keeping systems were inadequate.