Nigeria lost $2 billion to oil theft between January and August 2022. This is according to the ad-hoc committee set up by the Senate to investigate oil theft and consequent damage to the nation’s economy.
It would be recalled that on Thursday, April 14, the Senate constituted a 13- member Ad – Hoc Committee on Oil Lifting, Theft, and the impact on Petroleum Production and Oil Revenues under the chairmanship of Senator Akpan Bassey, who is also the chairman, of the Senate Committee on Petroleum ( Upstream).
In its report, the committee disclosed that the $2 billion loss, which is equivalent to N1.3 trillion was recorded within the period of 10 months.
“Nigeria lost over $2bn to oil theft between January and August 2022, with consequent loss of revenue that would support the country’s fiscal deficits and budget implementation,” the report read partly.
How NNPC planned to tackle oil theft
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and the Petroleum Training Institute (PTI) were looking forward to installing anti-theft integrated monitoring systems on pipelines.
The monitoring systems were expected to checkmate the increasing crude oil theft in the country.
The institute’s Principal/Chief Executive, Henry Adimula, said the training centre had developed an oil anti-theft integrated monitoring system to effectively monitor pipelines.
Adimula, who said this was one of the recent innovations of the PTI, stated, “We’ve produced an oil anti-theft integrated monitoring system for pipeline monitoring, and an air quality monitoring systems.
“We have Al’s and have developed a corrosion robot for early detection of localised corrosion and prevent loss of integrity of the facilities, among others.”
Expressing satisfaction at the innovation, the Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NNPC, Mele Kyari said the state-owned oil and gas company was pleased to hear what the institute had done in terms of pipeline monitoring.
He then told the PTI that NNPC would work with the institute to deploy the technology to further boost the monitoring of NNPC’s pipelines with a view to addressing crude oil theft in Nigeria.
“We need to produce oil and gas. We are trying to address the massive oil theft. We will overcome it, but clearly, it is something we also need to work together to resolve.
“That is why I’m happy to hear the PTI coming up with solutions that will be able to monitor pipelines,” the NNPC chief added.
