The Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission has formally received the final report of the Federal Government\u2019s Inter-Agency Committee on Nigeria\u2019s oil-producing states, with Cross River State projected to be re-listed as an oil-producing state.\n<\/p>\n
The report was submitted on Friday, February 13, 2026, to RMAFC Chairman Mr\u00a0Mohammed\u00a0 Shehu by 10 members of the 14-man committee.\n<\/p>\n
According to a statement made available to PUNCH Online on Sunday, the submission follows a rigorous six-month verification exercise conducted from August 2025 to February 2026 and involves nationwide scrutiny of crude oil and gas coordinates from 2017 to 2025.\n<\/p>\n
The committee comprised representatives from RMAFC, the National Boundary Commission (NBC), the Office of the Surveyor-General of the Federation (OSGoF), the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), the Nigerian Hydrographic Agency, and relevant security agencies.<\/p>\n
Its mandate was to determine, scientifically, the precise location of oil and gas assets within Nigeria\u2019s onshore and offshore boundaries.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cOver a six-month period, the team visited more than 12 states, including Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, Ondo, Imo, Anambra, Abia and Cross River.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the process, they verified over 1,000 new crude oil and gas coordinates based on confirmed onshore and offshore reservoir data.<\/p>\n
\u201cFindings from the report indicate that nearly all oil-producing states stand to benefit from new oil well attributions arising from the verified coordinates,\u201d the statement read.\n<\/p>\n
It noted that several longstanding boundary overlaps were resolved, including Rivers\u2013Akwa Ibom, Delta\u2013Edo, Delta\u2013Ondo, Imo\u2013Rivers, Imo\u2013Anambra, and Akwa Ibom\u2013Cross River.\n<\/p>\n
Sources said shared attributions were guided by equity and technical evidence rather than political considerations where geological reservoirs straddled boundaries.\n<\/p>\n
For Cross River, the statement noted that \u201ctechnical projections in the report place the state in a strong position to regain oil-producing status with more than 100 producing oil wells from verified onshore and offshore reservoir coordinates\u2014particularly from OML 114 located within its maritime territory. <\/p>\n
\u201cFor the first time since 2008, Cross River is projected to be officially enlisted again as an oil-producing state, a development widely seen as vindication of years of advocacy and scientific revalidation.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough Cross River submitted the highest number of surface coordinates\u2014over 245\u2014the implications of the 2012 Supreme Court judgment are expected to retain 76 oil wells in Akwa Ibom State pending further judicial interpretation,\u201d it added.\n<\/p>\n
Even with the deductions, the statement quoted sources close to the verification process as maintaining that Cross River\u2019s geological evidence was \u201ccompelling, empirical and beyond reasonable doubt.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe science speaks for itself. The reservoirs do not lie. The coordinates verified clearly establish Cross River\u2019s producing status,\u201d one senior official was quoted as saying.\n<\/p>\n
A fiscal expert in Abuja was also quoted as saying that the exercise \u201cseparates administrative attribution from geological reality, and Cross River emerges strongly from that distinction.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
The report also recalls that in May 2024, Cross River had benefited from an earlier Inter-Agency Committee report attributing 67 wells from OML 114 to the state, though implementation did not follow.\n<\/p>\n
The 2025 verification, strengthened with hydrographic and reservoir data, proved decisive in the current review.\n<\/p>\n
RMAFC Chairman Shehu is awaiting President Bola Tinubu\u2019s assent for the implementation of the Inter-Agency Technical Committee recommendations.\n<\/p>\n
Upon presidential approval, the RMAFC Board of Commissioners will convene a plenary session to approve the operational framework for implementing the new attributions and updating Nigeria\u2019s official list of oil-producing states.\n<\/p>\n
Stakeholders said the development represents not only administrative recognition for Cross River but also \u201ca restoration of economic justice, constitutional equity, and historical truth.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission has formally received the final report of the Federal Government\u2019s Inter-Agency…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428471,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[157097,52292,1397,1391,156889,157098,157099,157100,157101,157102,156893,90,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-428470","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-akwa-ibom-state","9":"tag-cross-river-state","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-federal-government","12":"tag-national-boundary-commission","13":"tag-nigerian-oil","14":"tag-oil-wells","15":"tag-oil-producing-state","16":"tag-oml-114","17":"tag-revenue-allocation","18":"tag-rmafc","19":"tag-science","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-united-kingdom","22":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}