The Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, Ogbonnaya Orji, has disclosed that the country 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.
