In its staff report for the 2022 Article IV Consultation, the IMF stated that “the authorities have published the annual financial reports of the NNPC since 2019, but the publishing of monthly reports of oil fiscal transfers to the government have stopped following the conversion of the NNPC to a public limited company.”
The posting of monthly reports and an audit of the oil fiscal funds received from the NNPC were both proposed by staff, it was said further.It praised recent initiatives to combat oil theft in the nation, which saw its oil production fall to its lowest level in several decades and miss out on the advantages of rising pricing in global markets.
The Washington-based fund recommended steady actions in the fight against oil theft along with increased transparency of NNPC’s oil fiscal transfers.
Real GDP growth is expected to moderately improve on account of measures taken to tackle security issues in the oil sector, according to the report.
The IMF stated: “Oil output is forecast to grow beginning in 2023 as two of the major oil pipelines, Trans Niger Pipeline and Forcados, come back into service carrying 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) and the Ikike field comes online with a production capacity of 50,000 bpd.
Nonetheless, due to the oil majors’ withdrawal from onshore oil delivery and exploration, overall oil production is expected to stay below pre-pandemic levels in the foreseeable term.