Vice President, Professor 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.
Osinbajo spoke at the one-day Stakeholders Conference on Oil Theft and Losses in Nigeria with the theme “Protecting Petroleum Industry Assets for Improved Economy” organized by the Special Investigative Panel on Oil Theft/Losses in Nigeria, on Tuesday in Abuja.
According to Osinbajo, oil theft if left unchecked, would spell doom for Nigeria and could fuel a public finance crisis that paralyses the government, which he said would make the nation vulnerable.
He said, “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.
“If left unchecked this could fuel a public finance crisis that could paralyse the government and make our nation vulnerable. Oil contributes about 80 percent 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. This was as he called for a collaborative action to hold Institutes and companies accountable for any loss or failure.
Osinbajo disclosed that the Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative, NEITI, pegged the oil theft and loss audited figures as something in the order of 619.7 million barrels of oil daily, which he said was valued for over $46 billion or N16.25 trillion, adding that these losses occurred between 2010 and 2020.
He said, “In addition Nigeria lost about 4.2 billion litres of oil petroleum products from refineries which was valued at over $1.84billion at the rate of 140 thousand barrels per day from 2009 to 2018.
“So the total value of oil lost between 2019 and 2020 is higher than Nigeria’s foreign reserves at any point in time and almost ten times Nigeria’s 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.”
