By Nathaniel Zacchaeus
The President of Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, Festus Osifo, identified problems of oil theft, vandalism of pipelines, and host communities issues as major issues affecting the nation’s oil revenues.

He spoke while making the presentation before the Senate ad-hoc committee investigating oil lifting, theft, and the impact on Petroleum production and oil revenues, chaired by Senator Akpan Bassey,

He alleged that the Military and other security agencies should be held accountable because they were allegedly aiding and abetting criminals to steal the crude with the active connivance of the regulatory agencies in charge of the nation’s Petroleum industry.

He specifically alleged that the military should be held responsible for the high rate of crude oil theft in the country.

He alleged that the Military and other security agencies were aiding and abetting criminals to steal the crude with the active connivance of the regulatory agencies in charge of the nation’s Petroleum industry.

He, therefore, challenged the regulatory agencies and various security outfits to be alive to their responsibilities to solve the problems.

He specifically alleged that men of the Amphibious Brigade in Port Harcourt and their counterparts in the Navy were conniving with superior officers at different times, and joined the locals in the theft.

He said, “One of the greatest problems we have, which nobody has highlighted is that there is strong connivance of our security forces in the crime.

“There is no doubt about this. From our Army to our naval officers, we have information that they pay their superiors to post them to some areas in the Niger Delta.

“I can authoritatively inform this committee that men of the Nigerian Army and the Navy pay their superiors to be posted to Niger Delta.
“Even when the former Commander of the Amphibious Brigade in Port Harcourt was removed, many of the men in the Command resisted being posted out due to lucrativeness of their operational areas.

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“I think the people who have the solution to this problem are not even the ones sitting here. They are the ones you will invite behind the camera,”

In his submission, the Executive Commissioner, Corporate Services and Administration in NUPRC, Mr Jide Adeola, said about 600, 000 barrels of crude oil are stolen per day.

The theft as disclosed by the NUPRC boss, is about a 95.4million litres per day or 600, 000 barrels since a barrel contains 159 litres.

He said as of today, Nigeria produces 1.23 million barrels of crude oil per day as against the 1.8 million barrels targeted, leading to a total revenue loss of today to $2.1bn or N877bn.

He, therefore, challenged the regulatory agencies and various security outfits to be alive to their responsibilities to solve the problems.

The Chairman of the Senate panel, Akpan Bassey, said the current massive oil theft in the country, if not immediately curbed, could frustrate the implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act, passed into law last year by the National Assembly.
He said, “The quota from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Country is about 1.8 million barrels per day but we are producing less than 1.2 million per day, showing a shortfall of 600,000 BPD. How do we meet our fiscal challenges?

“It is clear that the PIA/Host Community law we put in place is not the solution. If stealing crude has taken this worrisome dimension, what can the host communities do?
“We didn’t see any pipeline physically and nobody could ascertain the right of way. I still believe that PIB/Host Community law put in place is not the solution to oil theft. The law would not achieve its intendment if the current massive oil theft is not addressed.”

Bassey lamented the massive crude theft in the oil-producing areas of the Niger Delta region and noted that the development was crippling the nation’s economy.

He told the stakeholders that the shortfall in the country’s oil revenues was not due to oil theft alone but also caused by an inability to have evacuation access, lack of effective metering and monitoring by operators as well as the unwillingness of security agencies to checkmate the incidents of oil theft close to where they are stationed.

He disclosed that shut-in wells, oil theft, evacuation issues, and lack of effective metering were the issues affecting petroleum production and national revenues. He said the country has incurred a loss of over $2.1bn (about N872bn) as a result of oil theft and sabotage.

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He said, “We’ve carried out the spot assessment of the Niger Delta area where we spent over one week trying to find out what was going on.

“We spoke with necessary stakeholders and many of us returned to Abuja very sad because our investigations revealed that it was nothing but a national calamity. We are losing more than 900 barrels per day. A barrel is made up of 159 litres of crude. Most of the pipelines had been covered by bush, making it very unsafe for any security personnel to assess and secure the facilities.

“This is the worst form of economic sabotage which needed a strong political will to tackle but at the same time, it required legislative input to address.
“Stakeholders are also complaining about the roles of regulatory agencies which they claimed was not good enough to guarantee ease of doing business.”

He said the Bonny Terminal, being operated the Shell, which hitherto produces 60,000 barrels per day (BPD) has not produced a single barrel for the past seven months.

President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, who declared the public hearing open, said the Senate was worried that the petroleum sector had been bedevilled by oil theft which was threatening the nation’s economy.

He said, “It is regrettable that the criminals are perpetrating the unfortunate crime with the active connivance of stakeholders including security personnel.

“The Senate will stop at nothing to unveil the criminals behind the crime and that is why we set an ad-hoc committee to unravel the thieves and come up with workable solutions to end the menace, before December this year.”

Representatives of Shell, Total LNG, Chevron, SPDC Nigeria, Ministry of Trade and Investment, Nigeria Upstream Regulatory Commission, Fiscal Responsibility Commission, Inspector General of Police, Federal Inland Revenue Service, National Security Adviser, and Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association made presentations before the panel.