The Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), has blamed churches and mosques for enabling oil theft in the country.
Speaking at the 49th Session of the State House Briefing Organised by the Presidential Communications Team at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Mele Kyari, the Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC, lamented how churches and mosques now harbour stolen crude oil.
Kyari said the NNPC operatives discovered that stolen petroleum products are stored in places of worship with the consent of the clergy, members, and neighbours, as he revealed that at least 295 illegal connections were spotted on a 200km stretch of pipeline in one instance.
“Wherever our products have gone to, everybody has become some sort of vandal,” he maintained.
How much oil is stolen in Nigeria?
In 2022 Q1, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) released data that showed that Nigeria was losing about 250, 000 barrels per day of crude oil to theft. This did not only bring the total loss to about $1.5 billion daily but has consequently become the possible biggest threat to national development and the environment.
Just as economic woes are exacerbating Nigeria, oil theft by criminal networks and corrupt public office holders in the country is ravaging the economy.
Essentially, with how oil theft is gaining momentum in present times, the 11th largest oil-producing country in the world, cannot meet the quota assigned to it by Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
Meanwhile, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), recently partnered to tackle the menace of oil theft in the country.
the partnership was sealed in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, when the Chairman of IPMAN, Hon. Bello Binna paid a courtesy visit to the Port Harcourt’s Zonal Commander of the anti-graft agency, ACE Nwanneka Nwokike.
Expressing his confidence in EFCC relating to preferring solutions to oil theft, Binna stated: “We seek the support and intervention of the EFCC, because the Commission is the only agency trusted to give solutions on issues of pipeline vandalism and oil theft in the Niger Delta region.”
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