The Federal Government has appointed Candid Oil Services Limited as the new pre-shipment inspection agent (PIA) for crude oil exports from the Taurus Oil and Gas Depot, as part of ongoing efforts to strengthen oversight of Nigeria's petroleum export operations and curb revenue leakages.
The appointment was announced in a circular issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), dated July 1, 2026, and signed by Aderinola Shonekan, Director of the Trade and Exchange Department. According to the apex bank, the appointment takes immediate effect and is in line with the provisions of the Pre-Shipment Inspection of Exports Act, 1996.
The CBN said the notification has been forwarded to authorised dealer banks, the Nigeria Customs Service, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd), the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), terminal operators, oil and gas companies, and other stakeholders for compliance.
In the circular, the apex bank said the Federal Government had appointed Candid Oil Services Limited "to operate as a Pre-shipment Inspection Agent (PIA) for oil export" at the Taurus terminal and directed all relevant stakeholders to take note of the development.
Pre-shipment inspection agents play a critical role in Nigeria's oil export value chain by independently verifying the quality, quantity and value of crude oil and petroleum cargoes before shipment. The process is designed to ensure accurate export documentation, improve transparency and minimise revenue leakages from crude oil exports.
The latest appointment follows the Federal Government's continued expansion of the pre-shipment inspection framework. Weeks earlier, the CBN allocated the Cawthorne and Okwok crude oil terminals to Swede Control Intertek Limited, while a broader review of terminal allocations carried out in March 2025 assigned additional export terminals to nine inspection companies under the government's export verification programme.
The renewed deployment of inspection agents forms part of wider reforms aimed at strengthening accountability across Nigeria's oil export chain, improving regulatory oversight, enhancing export valuation accuracy and safeguarding government revenues from the country's crude oil exports.