Elumelu has tasked security agencies to expose those who steal the country’s crude oil, especially using vessels that move through the territorial waters.
By Emma Ogbuehi
Billionaire Tony Elumelu has tasked security agencies to expose those who steal the country’s crude oil, especially using vessels that move through the territorial waters.
Elumelu, who made the demand in an interview published in the Financial Times on Friday, stressed that crude theft was a factor in foreign oil corporations pulling out of the country.
He added that once criminal gangs started stealing crude from his pipelines, he personally witnessed why major oil firms were partially withdrawing from their onshore holdings.
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Elumelu cited personal experience of 2022, when his company had to shut down production because of the menace. Elumelu tweeted: “How can we be losing over 95 percent of oil production to thieves? Look at the Bonny Terminal, which should be receiving over 200,000 barrels of crude oil daily, instead, it receives less than 3,000 barrels, leading the operator Shell to declare force majeure.
“The reason Nigeria is unable to meet its OPEC production quota is not because of low investment but because of theft, pure and simple!
“Meanwhile, oil-producing countries are smiling as their foreign reserve is rising. What is Nigeria’s problem? We need to hold our leaders more accountable!”
Asked who is behind the theft, he replied: “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?”
For decades, Nigeria has been plagued by oil theft and pipeline vandalism. In September 2022, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) disclosed that it lost $700 million every month to oil theft. The Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative added that Nigeria lost 619.7 million barrels, valued at N16.3 trillion, to crude oil theft from 2005 to 2021.
The National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu stated in 2023 that the country lost 400,000bpd to theft. A former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, said Nigeria lost at least 700,000bpd to thieves in 2022.