FG Loses N1.8trn To Oil Theft

The Federal Government lost N1.8  trillion to pipelines vandalism and oil theft
in the last one year in the Niger Delta, the Minister of Petroleum, Mrs Diezani
Alison-Madueke has said.

Mrs Alison-Madueke disclosed this at a
stakeholders meeting on the rising insecurity in the oil sector in Lagos.

She explained that 5 billion dollars had
been spent in the last one year on pipeline affairs while 7 billion dollars was
lost to crude oil theft.

Also speaking, the Chief of Defence Staff,
Air Marshall Olusheyi Fetimi said the Federal Government had approved the
setting up of a task force to check the increasing oil theft in the country.

Present at the one day meeting were the
Chief of Army Staff, Azubuike Ihejirika and other chiefs as well as managing
directors of international and indigenous oil companies.

Meanwhile, the management of Kaduna
Refinery and Petrochemical Company (KRPC) says it would increase production of
kerosene to meet consumers’ demand.

The Executive Director, Service of the
company, Mr Idi Muhktar who stated this in Kaduna while answering questions
from journalists at the Kaduna International Trade Fair noted that the number
of kerosene users had risen due to the increase in population, thereby
stretching the capacity produced over the years.

Muhktar said that more people were likely
to use the product during the rainy season, pointing out that the Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) had taken full measures toward full
production capacity as importation would augment local production of the
product.

He observed that the daily production of
700,000 liters of kerosene by KRPC was not enough to make the desired impact,
adding “this will go up in the next few weeks.”

Shedie Okpara