The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has claimed Nigeria loses 500,000 barrels daily to crude oil theft.
President of the association, Mr Festus Osifo, who made this known at a news conference on Wednesday in Lagos, said such act had the tendency to bring down the country’s oil and gas industry, if not checked.
“The issues of crude oil theft has been exacerbated in recent times: this has made Nigeria lose out on accruing more revenue from the current high price of crude oil in the international market.
“We currently produce an average of 1.2 to 1.3million barrels of crude oil daily from a capacity of about two million barrels of crude oil per day.
“From October 2021 to February 2022, between 90 to 99 per cent of crude oil pumped into the Trans National Pipeline by operators is vandalised.
“Reconciliation/Fiscalisation at Bonny terminal shows that between five and 10 per cent of crude oil, metered from the operators gets to the terminals, “ he said.
He added that due to vandalism companies were forced to go into curtailment as they could not export what they produced.
According to him, an operator loses an average of 10 days of production shut-in every month, due to vandalism.
“Beyond the reduction in revenue to the operating companies and the country, this act of sabotage has caused serious environmental degradation to the host communities and region.
“The health implication of this unholy act will be monumental in years to come.
“As a matter of urgent national importance, the association hereby asks the Federal Government to work with stakeholders in the oil and gas industry as well as the national security architecture to find a lasting solution to this menace that is almost bringing the oil and gas industry to its knees.
“It is our expectation that the pipelines integrity will be sound enough to enable safe transportation of crude and products all over the country, while government establishes a special force, committed to strict enforcement of Pipeline Right of Way, “ Osifo said.
