The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission has reopened the verification of disputed and newly drilled oil and gas wells after complaints and counterclaims from affected states led to the rejection of an earlier draft report.
The commission on Thursday inaugurated a reconstituted Inter-Agency Technical Committee to carry out a fresh verification of the coordinates of disputed and newly drilled oil and gas wells from 2017 to date.
The exercise is expected to help establish the precise locations of the affected wells and determine the states entitled to the 13 per cent derivation revenue associated with oil and gas production.
Chairman of RMAFC, Mohammed Bello Shehu, said the commission had discarded the previous draft report after various states raised concerns about its findings. He said the new exercise would provide an opportunity to address the complaints and ensure that the verification process is based on accurate and independently established information.
The reconstituted committee comprises representatives of RMAFC, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, the National Boundary Commission and the Office of the Surveyor-General of the Federation.
The commission said the verification is part of its constitutional responsibility to monitor revenue accruing to the Federation Account and ensure that revenue is distributed in accordance with established constitutional provisions.
The location of oil and gas wells is particularly important because the 1999 Constitution provides for 13 per cent derivation to oil-producing states. Disagreements over the coordinates of wells can therefore have direct consequences for the amount of revenue attributed to individual states.
Several oil-producing states have been involved in disputes over the ownership or attribution of oil and gas wells. The disagreements include claims involving Cross River and Akwa Ibom, Rivers and Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa and Rivers, Imo and Anambra, Anambra and Delta, as well as disputes involving Edo, Delta and Ondo.
An earlier inter-agency exercise had physically verified more than 1,000 oil and gas wells across affected areas. The January 2026 report from that exercise contained findings concerning the location and attribution of wells in several states, but RMAFC subsequently clarified that the document was only a draft and had not become the commission's final position.
The commission said the fresh process would take account of the complaints and observations raised by the affected states before any final recommendations are made.
The renewed verification is expected to involve technical assessment of well coordinates and their plotting against approved boundary maps. The participation of relevant federal agencies is intended to combine expertise in revenue administration, petroleum regulation, boundary determination and surveying.
The outcome could have financial implications for oil-producing states because the final attribution of disputed wells may affect future derivation payments and potentially require adjustments to previous allocations where legally and technically established.
RMAFC has maintained that the process is intended to be impartial and guided by technical evidence rather than competing claims from the affected states.
The commission is expected to review the findings of the reconstituted committee before taking any final position on the disputed wells. Until that process is completed, claims about the final ownership or revenue entitlement of the disputed wells should not be treated as settled.
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