The Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force (PRSTF), commissioned in February 2012 by Minister of Petroleum Resources Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke and chaired by Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, produced the most granular forensic examination of revenue leakage in Nigeria's oil and gas sector to that date — a report implicating government officials and oil multinationals alike, whose suppression became a minor political crisis during the Jonathan presidency.
Ribadu — Nigeria's inaugural EFCC chairman (2003–2007) and 2011 presidential candidate — was selected as chairman deliberately, his appointment signalling anti-corruption credibility to domestic and international audiences. The task force comprised specialists in petroleum engineering, finance, and legal practice, supplemented by international consultants. It was constituted in the aftermath of the January 2012 fuel subsidy protests, though its mandate was broader: to examine the entire architecture of petroleum revenue collection, reporting, and remittance across the oil and gas value chain.
The 178-page confidential draft final report, submitted in August 2012 and leaked to the BBC and Premium Times by October 2012, found that Nigeria had lost approximately $29 billion across multiple revenue lines between 2002 and 2011. Specific findings included: NNPC's systematic under-remittance of crude-sale proceeds to the Federation Account; the Joint Venture cash call system being used to obscure fund flows; gas flaring fines collected but not remitted; royalties understated by oil companies with the connivance of Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) officials; domestic crude allocation to NNPC refineries generating revenue never properly accounted for; and the SURE-P fund being only partially deployed as mandated. Shell, ENI/Agip, Chevron, and Total were identified as having underpaid royalties and taxes in various configurations.
The Jonathan administration received the report but declined to release it formally or act on its prosecution recommendations. Finance Minister Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala acknowledged its findings in general terms but cited institutional constraints. Ribadu expressed public frustration at non-implementation. Several structural failures identified by the task force were echoed almost verbatim in the 2014 controversy over missing NNPC revenues that precipitated CBN Governor Sanusi's suspension. The report was eventually de-classified and posted on the PRSTF website, though key annexures remained restricted.