The Nigeria Natural Resource Charter (NNRC) Tuesday disclosed that its latest report on crude oil theft in Nigeria showed the country lost about N3.8 trillion within the last two years – 2016 and 2017 to the menace.
The UK-funded non-governmental organisation (NGO) also added that the estimated financial value of what Nigeria lost through crude oil theft in the Niger Delta was higher than the current combined allocations of the country to health and education in the 2018 federal budget.
This revelation is coming as the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCo), ExxonMobil, Total and the other partners will take the Final Investment Decision (FID) on the development of the $10 billion Bonga South West/Aparo (BSWA) deepwater project in 2019, THISDAY has learnt.
NNRC provides policy options to guide government and societies in their use of natural resources to ensure maximum and sustainable returns for citizens.
It said: “The combined allocations for health and education amount to N189.4 billion, which translates to a mere 8.4 per cent of the estimated value of losses from oil theft two years ago.”
The ‘NNRC’s Oil Theft in Nigeria’ report identified poverty, unemployment, poor governance, pervasive corruption and the neglect of the Niger Delta region as major reasons for the emergence and sustenance of oil theft over time.
According to it, in 2016, both government and oil companies indicated that a combined total of up to N3.8 trillion was recorded as the amount lost from crude oil theft, sabotage and pipeline vandalism.
It further stated that this was principally as a result of the force majeure declared at the Forcados terminal, combined with wider pipeline infractions and theft.
The government’s share of this loss, it explained was approximately 42 per cent or about N1.6 trillion.
“The Nigerian government passed a record budget of N9.12 trillion with a revenue target of N7.2 trillion, most of which it aims to achieve from the petroleum sector. Therefore, at a time when the country has just exited recession and the economy remains fragile, with national debt on the rise, reducing oil theft should clearly be an urgent national priority,” said NNRC in its advice to the government.
The NNRC equally observed that although oil theft was as old as the sector in Nigeria, the level of stealing rose with time.
“However, as the stakes got higher over time and with global oil prices rising above $100 a barrel in the early 2000s, oil theft evolved into a cottage industry, creating consequential socio-economic problems.
“Over the last decade, oil theft has risen to unprecedented levels, peaking between 2011 and 2014. The inability of the government and oil companies to curb this epidemic has made Nigeria the country most plagued by oil theft in the world,” it added.
