Name those behind oil theft, Elumelu tells FG

Name those behind oil theft, Elumelu tells FG

Renowned businessman, Tony Elumelu, has challenged the Federal Government and security agents to name and shame those stealing the country’s crude oil.
He stated this in a new interview he granted the Financial Times.
He noted that the menace contributed to the divestment of international oil companies in Nigeria.
According to him, international oil companies started divesting from onshore assets after criminal gangs began stealing crude from his pipelines.
Elumelu who is the chairman of the United Bank for Africa and Transcorp, said, “This is oil theft, we’re not talking about stealing a bottle of Coke you can put in your pocket.
“The government should know, they should tell us. Look at America — Donald Trump was shot at and quickly they knew the background of who shot him.
“Our security agencies should tell us who is stealing our oil. You bring vessels to our territorial waters and we don’t know?”
The 61-year-old founder of Heirs Holdings recalled how the previous administration of President Muhammadu Buhari allegedly stopped him from acquiring an oilfield.
He said Heirs Holdings had been looking to purchase the oilfield since 2017, having raised $2.5bn to purchase a different one.
He said he was told Nigeria could not allow something of such strategic importance to fall into the hands of a private operator.
“This defied logic,” he added since he would have been purchasing it from a foreign company.
Elumelu disclosed that his decision to buy a 45 per cent stake in an oilfield three years ago when international oil companies were selling off their shallow water assets in Nigeria was to give the country energy security in the face of low power supply.
He said, “We wanted to become a Fortune 500 company and we estimated what we needed. It’s not naira, it’s huge dollars. Energy security is crucial for a country that doesn’t produce enough electricity for its roughly 200 million citizens.”