CTA Tasks FG On Oil Theft, Pipeline Vandalism

The Center for Transparent Advocacy (CTA) has called on the Federal Government (FG) to be proactive if it hopes to end oil theft and pipeline vandalismin in the country.
Executive Director, CTA), Ms. Faith Nwadishi, who made the call, also stressed the need to be proactive in dealing with the menace,  which has festered for too long.
“The Federal Government needs to commence speedy implementation of the host provisions in the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021 to curb the alarming incidences of crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism, which is costing the country loss of huge revenues”, she stated.
Nwadishi, who recently spoke with reporters, noted the devastating impact of crude oil theft and illegal refineries on Nigeria’s economy, which relies mainly on revenue from the oil and gas sector to fund its operations.
The 2020 Petroleum Industry Report released by NEITI, indicated that at least 39.16million barrels (mmbls) of crude, valued at N15.71bn as at then, was stolen, with an average loss of 107,293 barrels per day (bpd).
According to the report, Nigeria lost an estimated N15.71 billion worth of crude oil in 2020, N1.67 trillion in 2021, and just from January to April 2022, the country has lost N623 billion worth of crude.
“If we are having crude oil theft of up to over 90 per cent, it means also that we are losing revenue up to 90 per cent, and that is devastating for a country like Nigeria that relies so much on the revenue that it  gets from the oil and gas sector, especially from the sales of crude oil.
“Unfortunately, this issue about crude theft had been going on for a very long time because the government didn’t take it seriously.
“I remember when I was on the  Board of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency and there was a study that was done, as at that time, it was reported at about four per cent of crude oil that was between 2013 and 2014.
“Then crude oil theft was about four per cent and only to be shocked, from official sources, that less than 10 years later we’re losing over 90 per cent. It means that as at the time that crude oil theft was at four per cent, the government was not doing anything about it even though security agencies funding for the protection of the infrastructure was increased,” she said.
Emphasising that Nigeria need to be proactive in the way the menace is handled, she continued that “luckily for us, we have the PIA that has been passed. There’s a component of the host community we need to as quickly as possible begin to implement.
“We need to reengage the community people on how to protect these pipelines in their neighborhood, because people have argued that the reason the crude is stolen is because the people have not gotten anything out of it,” she said.
Nwadishi, however, explained that beyond people in host communities stealing crude, there is connivance of the expertise of the professionals that know how this is done and the security agents.
“This is why the Federal Government needs to tighten security surveillance around the pipelines”, she said.
Speaking on the impact of illegal refineries on the lives of Nigerians Nwadishi said, “we can see now that even the illegal refining in the country is a dangerous venture. People have come out to say that you have these explosions from time to time, people die but unfortunately, we’ve got this one that claimed the lives of over 100 people.
“The reason people go into this is because of unemployment. People are not employed, you have an oil rich country, and unemployment rate is skyrocketing.
“You have young people who are graduates who can’t find jobs and so they join in this criminal gangs because it’s now a gang, it’s now something that people are so much involved in”.