The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has said that a total of 109.5 million barrels of crude oil was lost to thieves in the country in 2013.
Group Managing Director of NNPC, Andrew Yakubu, disclosed this last Tuesday in a special keynote address at the ongoing Nigerian Oil and Gas Conference in Abuja.
Yakubu said the country lost 300,000 barrels per day, or 109,500,000 barrels in 2013 to severe attacks on its critical export pipeline system.
According to the NNPC boss, the incessant vandalism of crude oil export pipelines as well as domestic crude oil and refined petroleum product pipelines had resulted in the negative consequences for the economy.
“Nigeria has faced unprecedented challenges as regards losses in production occasioned by incessant vandalism of crude oil export pipelines and domestic crude oil and petroleum product pipelines.
“In 2013, Nigeria – Africa’s largest oil producer – suffered severe attacks on its critical export pipeline system leading to the loss and or deferment of about 300,000 barrels per day. This deferred production is equivalent to the total production of Equatorial Guinea and larger than the entire production of Ghana, Congo Brazzaville, Cameroun and Gabon,” Yakubu stated.
He said Nigeria’s crude oil production is dependent on key arteries such as the Trans-Forcados, Trans-Niger, Nembe Creek line and Temidaba-Brass line, which connect three export terminals at Forcados, Bonny and Brass.
He said the pipelines were usually shut anytime they were vandalised, lamenting that the shut-ins of such significant production facilities had received the attention of the Federal Government, which had set aside N15bn to tackle the menace.
“The initiatives include the setting aside of N15bn for the purchase of security equipment to checkmate the scourge of oil theft in the Niger Delta approved by the National Economic Council,” he said.
Yakubu identified other measures to be taken to tackle the problem as the utilisation of new technology and radar surveillance to boost maritime security, increase in sea patrol by Nigerian Navy and inauguration of an inter-agency maritime operations coordination committee to provide synergy among agencies operating in the industry to ensure safety and security in the Nigerian maritime industry.
He listed others as provision of air surveillance of the pipelines with modern aircraft manned by Nigerian pilots and training under the Petroleum Technology Development Fund programme.
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