During the inauguration of an ad hoc committee tasked with investigating crude oil theft and revenue loss, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, disclosed that Nigeria suffered substantial losses amounting to $46 billion (equivalent to N16.25 trillion) due to crude oil theft between 2009 and 2020.
Speaker Abbas, in his address, highlighted the detrimental impact of crude oil theft on the country’s oil production, emphasizing that between 5% and 30% of crude oil production is lost daily to this menace.
Expressing his astonishment, the Speaker noted that key agencies in the oil and gas sector, including the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited, Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, and the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, failed to honor the invitation to participate in the investigative hearing.
Representing the Speaker at the event, Chairman of the House Committee on Petroleum (Upstream), Al Hassan Ado Doguwa, underscored the urgency of taking decisive action to address this issue. He warned that the nation might face a deeper fiscal crisis if the problem is not resolved promptly, leading to declining revenue from the oil and gas sector.
Additionally, he mentioned that Nigeria’s OPEC quota had been reduced from 1.742 million barrels per day to 1.38 million barrels per day. Despite this reduction, the country is struggling to meet even the revised quota, with daily production outputs of 1.184 million barrels per day in May and 1.249 million barrels per day in June 2023.
The Chairman of the investigative committee, Hon. Alhassa Usman Rumrum, expressed outrage at the extent of losses caused by oil theft and its adverse effects on the economy. He stressed that such losses are unacceptable and should not be tolerated by any government genuinely concerned about the well-being of its citizens.