The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, NUPRC, on Wednesday, September 21, 2022, said 95.4million litres or 600,000 barrels of crude oil were stolen daily.
It said a barrel contains 159litres.
The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, said personnel of the various security agencies deployed to the Niger Delta should be held accountable for the high rate of crude oil theft.
The Senate lamented the economic sabotage occasioned by the massive oil theft, fearing it would frustrate the implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act, PIA, if not urgently curbed.
It organised an investigative public hearing on “Oil lifting, theft and the impact on petroleum production and oil revenues”.
In his submission before the ad-hoc committee chaired by Senator Bassey Akpan (YPP – Akwa Ibom North East), the Executive Commissioner, Corporate Services and Administration of the NUPRC, Mr Jide Adeola, said about 159 litres amounting to 600,000 barrels of crude oil were being illegally siphoned per day.
Adeola revealed that Nigeria produces 1.23million barrels of crude oil per day as against its 1.8million barrels target, leading to a total revenue loss of about $2.1billion or N877billion.
National President of PENGASSAN, Festus Osifo, said oil theft was a collaborative crime between security personnel assigned to protect oil installations and the locals running illegal refineries.
He alleged that the security agencies were aiding and abetting criminals to steal the crude with the active connivance of regulatory agencies in charge of the nation’s petroleum industry.
He, therefore, challenged the petroleum regulatory agencies and various security outfits to be alive to their responsibilities to curtail the menace.
Osifo said: “One of the greatest problems we have, which nobody has highlighted is that there is strong connivance of our security forces in the crime.
“There is no doubt about this. From our Army to our Naval officers, we have information that they pay their superiors to post them to some areas in the Niger Delta.
“I can authoritatively inform this committee that men of the Nigerian Army and the Navy pay their superiors to be posted to Niger Delta.
“Even when the former Commander of the Amphibious Brigade in Port Harcourt was removed, many of the men in the Command resisted being posted out due to lucrativeness of their operational areas.
“I think the people who have a solution to this problem are not even the ones sitting here. They are the ones you will invite behind the camera.”
Chairman of the Adhoc Committee, Senator Samoan said: “The quota from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Country is about 3.3 million barrels per day but we are producing less than 1.3million per day. How do we meet our fiscal challenges?”
Source: The Nation
