The Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, (NEITI), Dr. Ogbonnaya Orji, has said that Nigeria lost $1.84bn worth of petroleum products from refineries in nine years.
Orji stated this on Monday at the opening ceremony of the 2024 NEITI board retreat/meeting in Lagos.
According to him, 4.2 billion litres of petroleum products were lost from the refineries as a result of oil theft between 2009 and 2018. This was estimated at 140,000 barrels per day.
Baffled by the increasing rate of oil theft, the NEITI boss said, “Figures contained in our 2009 to 2020 audits have put Nigeria’s losses to crude oil theft over a 12-year period at 619.7 million barrels valued at $46.16bn or N16.25tn. Similarly, between 2009 and 2018, the country also lost 4.2 billion litres of petroleum products from refineries valued at $1.84 billion.”
He added that these losses and their attendant negative effects on the economy made the previous administration constitute a special panel on oil theft/losses to study the situation.
Orji hinted that NEITI did a report and made recommendations on the ways to stop oil theft in Nigeria, urging the current administration to look into the report and implement the recommendations.
He emphasised that the five-day retreat was an opportunity to discuss ideas on ways to deal with the current challenges of oil theft, illegal mining, pipeline and other governance challenges that have contributed to the loss of revenues and investment opportunities.
On energy transition, the executive secretary expressed worries that the nation’s economy is being threatened by the global shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy as the demand for oil declines.
Orji noted that the global transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources poses significant risks to countries that depend heavily on hydrocarbon-based natural resource revenues for survival.
“Our country, Nigeria is heavily dependent on oil revenues for survival. It is within the ambit of this board to support our government and citizens with timely policy decisions and strategies to deal with this unavoidable unfolding development in the extractive sector.
“The fear of the known risks in most of the affected countries far outweighs the potential unknown opportunities except we utilise the immense opportunities within the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, its global network and multi-stakeholder framework to search for solutions.
“At current dependency levels, Nigeria already faces significant threats to its economy from the prospect of a permanent decline in global demand for crude oil. The demand for our oil keeps going down daily,” local media reports on Wednesday quoted Orji as saying.
GIK/APA
$1.8bn worth of petroleum products stolen from refineries in 9 years – NEITI Boss
