Unless urgent steps were taken to stop oil theft and vandalism, the national economy which depends largely on petrol-dollars, risked impending collapse,the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN),has said.
Nigeria loses 90 to 99 percent of crude pumped into its Trans-National Pipeline (TNP) to vandalism and theft in the Niger Delta region,Festus Osifoo,president of the oil union told reporters in Lagos
The issues of crude oil theft have in recent times been exacerbated, making Nigeria to lose out from the gains of the current oil rally in the international market,he quoted a paper titled ,’state of the nation’
According to him,Nigeria produces an average of 1.2 to 1.3million barrels of crude oil daily from a capacity of about 2 million barrels of crude oil per day.
He said between October 2021 and February 2022, between 90 and 99 percent of crude oil pumped into the Trans National Pipeline (TNP) by operators was vandalised.
He said reconciliation/fiscalisation at Bonny terminal shows that between 5 and 10 percent of crude oil metered from the operators gets to the terminals.
He explained:“Another problem arising from vandalism is that companies are forced to go into curtailment when these assets/export pipelines are damaged as they cannot export what they produce, thereby incurring production losses”
He disclosed that an operator loses an average of 10 days of production shut-in every month due to vandalism, adding that recent preliminary work showed that about 150 illegal tappings were used in siphoning crude oil from the TNP.
He said beyond reduction in revenue to the operating companies and the national economy, this act of sabotage has caused serious environmental degradation to the host communities and region.
He added:“As a matter of urgent national importance, we hereby call on the Federal Government to work with stakeholders in the oil and gas industry as well as the national security architecture to find a lasting solution to this menace that is almost bringing the oil and gas industry to its knees.
“It is our expectation that the integrity of the pipelines will be sound enough to enable safe transportation of crude and products all over the country, while the government establishes a special force committed to strict enforcement of pipeline right of way”.
