The Minister of State Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, has faulted claims by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, NUPRC, that inaccurate measurement was responsible for 40 per cent of crude oil losses attributed to oil theft.
Sylva in a statement yesterday by his media aide, Mr. Horatius Egua, attributed “loss of revenue from crude production to theft, pipeline vandalism and decayed infrastructure”.
The Federal Government had last year, estimated that about 200,000 barrels of oil was lost daily in Nigeria due to oil theft and pipeline vandalism.
He noted that the major sources of crude oil losses had primarily been theft, pipeline vandalism and production deferment as a result of pipeline non-availability.
He said: “It is a known fact that the major losses of crude oil in the country have been through theft and destruction of oil pipelines. Again, we also know that some of the oil infrastructure are old and decayed and cannot perform at maximum capacity.
“There is also the issue of lack of investments in fossil fuel in the country and the drive towards renewable energy has really hampered new investments in this sector.”
The minister, however, explained that despite the challenges, the Federal Government was determined to end the trend through improved investments and security along the major oil and gas pipelines in the Niger Delta.
He pointed out that the government had put measures in place to restore sanity in the sector, adding that contrary to the report, the problem associated with crude oil losses was systemic issues that the government was already handling, with a view to finding permanent solutions.
While expressing satisfaction at the improved security along the major oil pipelines in the region, Sylva called for sustained efforts by all concerned to maintain maximum crude oil production.
“We are very confident that Nigeria will achieve two million barrels per day crude oil production target very soon. The government is doing everything possible to get to where we should be and everyone is working hard to achieve this,” the minister said.
However, NUPRC Chief Executive, Gbenga Komolafe, had in a speech delivered at the Petroleum Club Quarterly Dinner in Lagos last weekend, said a forensic audit conducted by the commission, covering the period January 2020 to November 2022 on crude theft numbers, showed that 40 per cent of the volume attributed to crude oil theft was due to inaccurate measurements.
He explained that the audit was to ascertain with accuracy the stolen volume of crude oil within the reference period.
The commission had two weeks ago, begun the process of enacting new regulations on how crude oil produced in the country can be measured, as part of efforts to check oil theft.
The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, NEITI, had in its several oil and gas industry audit reports, raised the alarm that Nigeria didn’t know exactly the volume of crude oil produced in the country as there were no meters at oil well heads.