NG News: Crude oil theft hits 180,000 bpd .
Friday, 25
From Collins Olayinka
- x NG Guardian -
NIGERIA loses about 180,000 barrels of crude oil per day (bpd) to theft and pipeline vandalism, according to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
The Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Austen Oniwon, who stated this in Abuja yesterday while addressing members of the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum (Upstream) who were led by their Chairman, Muraina Ajibola, said there had been an increase of about 30,000 bpd over a four-month period.
Besides, the Chairman of the National Taskforce on Petroleum Revenue, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu said that insecurity in Nigeria’s oil and gas installations was contributing to about 30 per cent of total loss of revenue in the sector.
According to the NNPC GMD, the country’s total crude oil loss had outstripped the current crude oil production capacity of Ghana which stood at 120,000bpd, adding that high-profile criminals had taken over illegal oil trading activities from militants.
Oniwon also noted that the nefarious activities of oil thieves did not only have implications on revenue loss to the country but also constituted environmental hazards to the host communities.
Ribadu, who was at a stakeholders’ workshop in Abuja yesterday said: “Security is the reason why we are not getting maximum out of this industry; security is responsible for up to 30 percent of loss of revenue to the country one way or the other. And right now we are being told by so many of the players that we are losing close to 200,000 barrels of crude oil per day to insecurity and if you put that into arithmetic, you know how much we are losing.”
He also noted that figures on Nigeria’s crude oil loss to illegal activities in the creek might not be accurate, considering poor metering mechanisms employed in the sector.
