The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has made a startling revelation showing that huge crude theft is still thriving in the nations oil industry.
The NNPC also said the industry is equally experiencing vandalism of key facilities by third party infringement.
The Group Managing Director of the Corporation, Mele Kyari revealed that the nation records daily loss of about 200,000 barrels of crude oil daily to theft and vandalism and would need industrywide action to deal with the scourge.
The GMD stated this at a meeting with the Chief of Defence Staff, Major-General Lucky Irabor at the Defence Headquarters in Abuja.
While commending the security agencies for their support and protection for the Corporation’s operational assets and personnel, he stated that petroleum products theft on the System 2B Pipeline has reduced considerably due to support from the security agencies.
“We have two sets of losses, one coming from our products and the other coming from crude oil. In terms of crude losses, it is still going on. On the average, we are losing 200,000 barrels of crude every day,” Kyari stated.
The Chief of Defence Staff in his remarks promised to galvanize the military to provide maximum security for the nation’s oil and gas assets.
Irabor who acknowledged the significant role of the oil and gas sector to the economy, said there was need for collaboration between the NNPC and the Armed Forces to protect oil and gas facilities which he described as critical national assets.