The Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, Dr Ogbonnaya Orji, has revealed that in nine years, the nation lost petroleum products valued at $1.84 billion from refineries.
This was disclosed in a statement by Orji on Monday at the opening ceremony of the 2024 NEITI board retreat/meeting in Lagos, according to The Punch.
He said that between 2009 and 2018, oil theft caused the refineries to lose 4.2 billion liters of petroleum products. A daily estimate of 140,000 barrels was given for this.
The NEITI boss said, “Figures contained in our 2009 to 2020 audits have put Nigeria’s losses to crude oil theft over 12 years 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.”
Orji further said that the previous administration formed a special commission on oil theft/losses to investigate the problem because of these losses and the ensuing detrimental repercussions on the economy.
He 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 emphasized that the purpose of the five-day retreat was to exchange ideas on how to address the existing issues of pipelines, illegal mining, oil theft, and other governance problems that have led to the loss of income and investment prospects.
Regarding the energy transition, the executive secretary voiced concerns that, as the world’s demand for oil drops, the switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy may pose a threat to the country’s economy.
The NEITI boss pointed out that nations that primarily rely on hydrocarbon-based natural resource earnings for survival face serious concerns as the world shifts away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy sources.
“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,” he noted.
