Nigeria has lost 22.6 million barrels at oil to the activities of petroleum pipeline vandalism and stealing of crude oil in the first six months of this year.
The quantity lost is estimated at $1.35 billion (N481.95 billion).
This was disclosed on Wednesday, September 18, 2019, to State House correspondents by Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, at the end of the National Economic Council meeting chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
If the loss is not checked, he said that Nigeria will lose $2.7 billion by the end of the year.
To check the trend, he said his committee recommended to the Council the needs to restructure the maintenance and ownership of pipelines in the country.
The recommendations, he said, also included prosecution of criminals and creation of special court to handle the cases.
He said the committee also recommended that NNPC should endeavour to engage the National Intelligence Agency to track countries benefiting from the stolen crude oil.
According to him, the Council resolved that the recommendations should be forwarded to President Muhammadu Buhari, who is the Minister of Petroleum.
