Vice President Prof Yemi Osinbajo has said that oil theft and losses pose a serious threat to Nigeria’s economy and impact negatively on the revenue of the nation.
According to the Vice President, if left unchecked, these could fuel a public finance crisis that paralyses the government and makes the nation vulnerable.
Osinbajo spoke at the stakeholder’s conference of the Special Investigative Panel on Oil Theft and Losses in Nigeria on Tuesday at Transcorp Hilton Abuja
“Oil Theft and Losses is a threat to our economy and national security. They pose a serious threat to our oil economy and impact negatively on revenue of the nation and business prospects of investors in the oil and gas sector.” Osinbajo said.
“If left unchecked this could fuel a public finance crisis that could paralyse the government and make our nation vulnerable,” he added, saying that Oil contributes about 80% of government foreign exchange and contributes six percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product, GDP.
He said that large scale theft of crude has undermined the government’s efforts to maximise these resources.
“So the total value of oil lost between 2019 and 2020 is higher than Nigerian foreign reserves at any point in time and almost ten times Nigerian oil savings in the excess crude account. So it’s not an exaggeration at all to say that our oil and gas sector is facing the most serious threat for over half a century…” the VP said.
Speaking earlier, Chairman of the Special Investigative Panel on Oil Theft/Losses in Nigeria, Major General. Barry Ndiomu, rtd, said that the panel said there is no gainsaying the enormous impact the menace of oil theft has had on the nation’s crude oil production with Nigeria’s oil output hitting a 13-year low of 800,000barrels/day.
“The panel visited several sites across the Niger Delta such as the now infamous Yokiri Flow Station Area in Burutu Delta State where the illicit connection on the export line that fed off the TETL was discovered and saw other connecting points used for illegal refining,” he said.
He said that there have been engagements with the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC, amongst others. which availed the panel information on the challenges the respective organizations faced in securing the nation’s oil assets and combating oil theft.
“These efforts provided us new knowledge and elicited honest discussions amongst panel members that led to some obvious conclusions. We surmised that the reported theft and loss of crude oil stemmed from the twin issues of complicity and negligence.
“The emergent picture suggests the existence of a sophisticated network of complicity between elements from the host communities, security agencies, and industry players- both government and private institutions alike- as well as international collaborators.”
Oil theft, losses will fuel crisis in Nigeria if not checked – Osinbajo, Ndiomu
