Nigeria lost $1.3bn worth of crude oil to theft and pipeline vandalism in the first six months of 2019, according to state governors, who looked into the criminal cases in the oil sector in the Niger Delta.
The governors were members of a 13-member ad hoc committee raised by the National Economic Council to carry out the assignment.
The report of the findings was submitted to NEC at its meeting presided over by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Thursday.
The Governor of Edo State, Mr Godwin Obaseki, who chaired the committee, spoke with State House correspondents after the NEC meeting.
The committee warned that if the situation was not arrested immediately, losses could be higher than $2.7bn in two years.
Obaseki said the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation briefed the ad hoc committee before the latter prepared its report.
The governor gave details, “The ad hoc committee discovered that there were huge losses. In fact, the NNPC reported to the committee that 22.6 million barrels of crude oil valued at approximately $1.35bn were lost during the first half of this year.
“If this situation is not contained, in two years we would have lost $2.7bn.
Obaseki said, “The slow and inadequate prosecution of thieves despite numerous arrests and seizures have continued to encourage this menace.”
He added, “The absence of petroleum products filling stations in most of the oil producing communities around the Niger Delta makes them to resort to illegal bunkering and illegal refineries.
“Huge internal and external market of stolen products exists across the West Coast of Africa and also the sub-region.”
Source: Punch Newspaper
