Nigerian elite steal crude oil, collude with foreigners to sabotage economy
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Oil theft in the Niger Delta is an organised crime perpetrated by the elite North and South, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) has lamented in the face an economy sabotage carried out in collusion with foreign entities.
Figures compiled by the Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI) show 619.7 million barrels of crude oil worth $46.16 billion (N16.25 trillion) were stolen in seven years alone.
NEITI Head of Communications and Advocacy Obiageli Onuorah said in a statement the agency supports the plan by the federal government to investigate oil theft which has depleted output and destabilised the economy.
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Yearly losses
Data provided by eight oil firms shows some of the losses occurred from 2009 to 2016, according to NEITI oil and gas reports, per The PUNCH.
The losses are as follows:
- 2009 – 69.49 million barrels ($4.31 billion)
- 2010 – 28.31 million barrels ($2.29 billion)
- 2011 – 38.61 million barrels ($4.39 billion)
- 2012 – 51.58 million barrels ($5.82 billion)
- 2013 – 78.30 million barrels ($8.55 billion)
- 2014, 2015 (combined) – 67.29 million barrels ($5.57 billion)
- 2016 – 101.05 million barrels ($4.42 billion)
- Total losses – 619.7 million barrels ($46.16 billion)
“It is regrettable that at a time Nigeria’s economy is largely dependent on oil revenues, some Nigerians would choose to collude with foreign nationals to steal and sabotage the main sources of revenue for the federation,” NEITI said.
Oil revenue contributes just about 6% to GDP
Oil is still the backbone of Nigeria’s economy but its declining trajectory is highlighted by a mere 5.66 per cent it contributed to total real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the third quarter of the year ended September 2022 (Q3 2022).
On the other hand, non-oil sector contribution is growing even though it is a long way from fully relegating the liquid gold to the back burner.
Latest data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows the input of oil to GDP is down from 7.49 per cent in Q3 2021 and 6.33 per cent in Q2 2022.
The report said Nigeria recorded an average daily oil production of 1.20 million barrels per day (mbpd) in Q3 2022, lower than 1.57 mbpd in Q3 2021 and 1.43 mbpd in Q2 2022.
Oil industry real growth was -22.67 per cent year-on-year (YoY) in Q3 2022, a dip of 11.94 percentage points versus Q3 2021 and -11.77 per cent compared with 10.91 in Q2 2022.
Quarter-on-quarter (QoQ), it grew -1.80 per cent in Q3 2022.