The Senate public accounts committee is going through three years of oil and gas audits by NEITI, the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.

First hearing, 3 August. Empty chairs. The central bank, the Niger Delta Development Commission, the upstream regulator NUPRC and NEITI's own officials didn't appear. Senator Babangida Hussaini wanted the Senate to use its constitutional powers against agencies that stay away.

13 August. The Finance Ministry did turn up. Its permanent secretary, Raymond Omachi, said the ministry wasn't directly involved in every transaction NEITI queried. And the records it needs from the agencies involved, NNPCL and NUPRC among them, haven't come, he said.

He said the ministry was having "challenges bringing them to the table." He asked senators to use their powers to compel the agencies.

The fix so far? A forensic audit by Arthur Andersen LLP. Senator Ibrahim Dankwambo, who chairs the committee, noted the deadline has been extended twice. Six months, then a year.

The committee told the ministry to set up a joint meeting with NUPRC, NNPCL and the other agencies. And NNPC's reply to the ministry's account? Not in the reports cited.

What's still open? Four items. A $3 billion loan from 2012 and how it was repaid. $722.6 million in NLNG dividends and interest. $221.283 million in overhead costs at the National Petroleum Investment Management Services. And about ₦200 billion spent on refineries that weren't running in 2021.

Some deductions do come itemised. NEITI's audit shows ₦1.20 trillion deducted from domestic sales proceeds in 2021. Subsidy was ₦1.16 trillion of that. Crude and product losses, ₦16.20 billion. Pipeline repairs, ₦22.05 billion. Strategic stockholding, ₦6.75 billion.

Is it the data or the enforcement? Two views, both given to TheCable. Kelvin Emmanuel, an energy consultant, says Nigeria lacks end-to-end metering and a hydrocarbon accounting framework. Government needs reliable production and revenue data first, he says, to establish what operators owe.

Kenechukwu Agwu, a lawyer, sees it differently. The tools to enforce payment already exist, he says. The test is using them consistently and in the open.

Enforcement has produced money, though. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission told the committee that 24 of the 43 oil companies it invited had outstanding Niger Delta Development Commission levies. It reported that, with direct payments by companies after its intervention, recoveries total about ₦83.59 billion and $98.07 million.

On 31 July, ₦3.510 billion and $14.006 million of what it recovered was still in its account. NEITI has asked for those payments to be reconciled too.