By Adedapo Adesanya
Over $1.5 billion was used from 2020 to date to protect the nation’s oil installations and curb crude oil theft, the Secretary of the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr George Akume, has said.
Mr Akume, represented by the Permanent Secretary for General Services, Mr Maurice Nandi, made this disclosure at a public hearing of the House of Representatives on crude oil theft on Thursday in Abuja.
The former Governor of Benue State said the federal government was worried about the report of the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) which pointed to over $46 billion worth of stolen crude between 2009 and 2020.
The House had set up a special committee headed by the Chairman of the House Committee on Petroleum Upstream, Mr Ado Doguwa, to investigate the losses in the oil and gas sector.
The Speaker of the House, Mr Tajudeen Abbas, who was represented by Deputy Speaker, Mr Benjamin Kalu, said $10 billion had been lost in seven months to crude oil theft, and no magic can be done by the government with such a loss.
Data from NEITI showed that Nigeria’s oil production declined from 2.51 million barrels per day in 2005 to 1.3 million barrels per day in 2023.
As a result, Nigeria has continually failed to meet its daily production quota as set by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
Nigeria’s OPEC quota was reduced from 1.742 million barrels per day to 1.45 million barrels per day in 2024, despite President Bola Tinubu setting a target of 1.8 million barrels per day for the 2024 fiscal year.
This year alone, oil production has fallen to 1.3 million barrels per day due to underinvestment and oil theft.
Losses from oil have impacted Nigeria’s foreign earnings which relies on the commodity to fund its swelling budget. Other avenues including taxation have been considered to offset the losses.
