by our correspondent.
Data from the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) shows that between 2009 and 2018, Nigeria lost about US $43 billion to crude as well as domestic refined petroleum products theft.
The Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mele Kyari, put crude oil losses for 2019 alone at about $750 million.
Analysts say if such leakages were to be saved, the $43 billion loss would have been enough to finance the 2021 national budget of $35 billion (N13.082 trillion) and provide additional $8 billion capable of constructing nearly 2,733 kilometres of standard-gauge rail line that can link Lagos to Kano without resorting to borrowing .
Director General, DPR, Sarki Auwalu
The Director General of Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Sarki Auwalu, while explaining the accounting process of crude production in Nigeria, in a statement, said the land terminals account for most of the oil theft as such theft across offshore terminals are nearly impossible, noting that the land producers have to use pipelines to transport the crude into the terminals for export..
“In the process, you have a lot of third party interference, which results in volumes that are being taken and are stolen and the theft volume, if not all, comes from the land terminals. But the offshore terminals, it is actually practically impossible to steal crude from offshore terminals, since it is from the bottom of the sea,” he was quoted.
Comment here