Kyari Briefs House Of Reps Committee On Measures Taken To End Crude Oil Theft

The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd, Mele Kyari on Thursday briefed the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum (Upstream) on the menace of crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism in the country.

Kyari appeared before the lawmakers with Chairman of the NNPC Board, Mrs Margery Okadigbo and other senior management staff of the NNPC.

The GMD spoke on the measures being taken by the federal government towards restoring production and improving revenue for the country.

He said, “I am optimistic that with the measures taken by the FG, we’ll see a significant improvement in shoring up our crude oil production. We have a sustainability plan in place to ensure we recoup our crude oil production 100 per cent.”

His appearance at the House of Reps is coming barely three weeks when he, in company of the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva and the Chief of Defence Staff Lucky Irabo visited the Niger Delta for an on-the-spot assessment of the damage done by vandals, a military operation followed immediately to smoke vandals out of the creeks.

Currently, the Nigerian Navy is carrying out serious military operations in the Niger Delta to ensure that oil and gas assets are protected.

With the current operation of the Navy in the Niger Delta region, the NNPC GMD said there are hopes that the issue of pipeline vandalism and crude oil theft will be brought under control within the next two to three weeks.

The theft of crude oil has been having a negative effect on the revenue of the federal government, which has denied the country the much-needed fund to boost economic development.

Apart from revenue loss, the issue of oil theft is currently threatening not just the NNPC’s quest for energy security for the country, it is also having a debilitating effect on Nigeria’s revenue earnings.

A report released last month during a meeting on crude oil theft between the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission and Oil Producers Trade Section, as well as the Independent Petroleum Producers Group, showed that between January 2021 and February 2022, Nigeria lost $3.2bn to crude oil theft.

Based on the Central Bank of Nigeria official exchange rate, the amount lost to crude oil theft translates to N1.32trn.

The report revealed that oil theft rose significantly between 2021 and 2022, with over 90 per cent of total crude produced at the Bonny Terminal stolen in January 2022.

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