Budget defence: NNPC spent $10.482bn in 2012

ABUJA—THE Senate was yesterday told that the total budget allocated to Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, in 2012 stood at N1.572 trillion.

Disclosing this when he appeared before the Senator Emmanuel Paulker, (PDP Bayelsa Central)-led Senate Committee on Petroleum, Upstream, for the defence of the 2013 budget, NNPC Group Executive Director (Exploration and Production), Mr. Abiye Membere, who noted that the Corporation’s budget for next year, is $13.7 billion for 2013, stressed that in 2012, it had initially requested for N1.917 trillion, but was turned down.

When Membere tried to give an overview of the budget, Senators Heineken Lokpobiri, (PDP, Bayelsa West) and Hayatou Gwarzo, (Kano North) insisted that the figures he will give must be in naira and kobo.