Nigeria lost $1.5bn to oil theft in three months – NNPC GMD

Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd, Mele Kyari, says the nation has lost $1.5bn worth of oil to vandals and operators of illegal refineries between January and March this year.

He said this when he appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum (Upstream) on Thursday.

He said the country’s oil sector was recording an all-time low crude oil production of 1.49 million barrels per day due to increase in the activities of vandals and operators of illegal refineries.

“What is going on has nothing to do with the PIA. It is purely an act of thieves; acts of vandals which have rendered the industry unworkable and taken us to the level where today, our production is around 1.49 million barrels per day.”

“When you lose about 200,000 barrels per day, even at an average price of 65 dollars per barrel, we lost close to one billion dollars between January and March. From January till date, we lost an average of 250,000 barrels per day and at the current price of about 100 dollars to the barrel, even within this short period, we have lost close to 1.5 billion dollars.

“This situation deteriorated to the extent that by March 7, 2022, it came to zero and so, we shut down the line and declared force majeure. Even on our most reliable pipeline which is the Forcados pipeline, we still lose about 7,000 barrel per day. Needless to say that this is all coming as a result of the acts of vandals and oil thieves,” he said.

Kyari, however, assured the lawmakers that massive joint security operations among agencies were currently ongoing to address the situation.

“Many of these illegal refineries are being taken down and also the insertions are being constantly removed and we believe that these interventions will pay off. And we will be able to restore production. And this is centrally coordinated. There is a coordinated action now because we are using a number of strategies including community based security outfits”, he said.

Kyari said due to the negative impact of the activities of the oil vandals on the country’s economy and environment, there was a need to set up a special court to prosecute such cases to ensure speedy dispensation.

Chairman, House Committee on Petroleum (Upstream), Sarki Ada (APC-Sokoto), had earlier said the interface with the NNPC GMD was to ascertain the factors responsible for the decline in the country’s oil production with a view to proffering solutions.

He promised the House would give the necessary support to address the issue in the interest of the country.