The Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, on Tuesday, tasked stakeholders in the oil and gas industry to come out with recommendations and solutions that would address oil theft and boost production in the country.
Osinbajo indicated this in Abuja while addressing a “Stakeholders Conference on Oil Theft and Loses in Nigeria”.
The conference with the theme: “Protecting Petroleum Industry Assets for Improved Economy”, was organised by the Investigative Panel on Oil Theft/Losses in Nigeria under the chairmanship of retired Maj.-Gen. Barry Ndiomu.
“All theft and sabotage of oil and gas assets are a clear and present danger to our economy and national security. Not only do they pose a serious threat to all exploration and our energy economy, but they also impact negatively what is accrued to the federation and the business prospects on investors in the oil and gas sector.
“If not checked, this will fuel crises that will paralyse the government and leave our country extremely vulnerable to all of the shocks and other unexpected consequences.
“Large-scale theft of crude oil undermines our efforts to optimise the intended vision. Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI) put the audited figure of oil theft and losses at something in the order of 619.7m barrels of crude oil daily.
“And this is valued at $46 billion dollars or N16.25 trillion; and all of these losses occurred between 2010 and 2020,” he said.
“In addition, Nigeria lost about 4.2bn liters of petroleum products from refineries which were valued at over 1.4bn dollars at the rate of 140,000 barrels per day from 2009 to 2018.
“This is just an average, because, there are peaks where we see losses between 200 to 400 thousand barrels in a day.
“Institutional and personal reputation are at stake. I think that is the cardinal reason we are here. I employ us to exhaust the decision on this matter.
“With the profile of discussants, I hope you will discuss appropriately and come up with recommendations that would proffer solutions and achieve the overall objective of this conference.
“I want you to think out of the box and be courageously innovative in proferring your recommendations,” Osinbajo charged.
He further stressed that the total value of crude oil losses between 2009 and 2020 was higher than the size of Nigeria’s foreign reserve at any point in time and also 10 times Nigeria’s savings in our crude account.
The event attracted officials from the Ministries of Finance, Interior, Petroleum, Environment and Education.
Others were officials from the National Assembly, Service Chiefs, military and paramilitary agencies, NNPCL, PENGASSAN, NIMASA, Oil Companies, Captains of industries, traditional rulers from host communities and many relevant stakeholders.
