Nigeria’s National Security Adviser (NSA), retired Maj.- Gen. Babagana Monguno warned that crude oil theft still remains the biggest threat to Nigeria’s economy
Monguno disclosed this on Tuesday in Abuja at the Stakeholders’ Conference on Oil Theft and Losses in Nigeria, convened by the Special Investigative Panel on Oil Theft/Losses.
The NSA revealed that oil theft in the country can be traced to the early 80s, adding it has developed to a more pronounced and disturbing level in recent times.
He warned that oil thieves increased the level of sophistication of methods they employ to tap primary pipelines with illegal secondary pipelines to load on barges and sell to international collaborators, or to process locally for domestic sale.
The NSA inaugurated an 11-man special investigative panel to probe oil theft in the Niger Delta region of the country in December 2022.
Economic Threat: Monguno disclosed that attacks on oil-producing sites caused production shut down, forcing international oil companies to declare force majeure, resulting in loss of revenue and hurting the capacity of the government to generate the required resources to fulfil its statutory responsibilities, he added:
- “Currently, crude oil theft is arguably the biggest threat to Nigeria’s economy.
- “Its socio-economic impact includes environmental degradation, health hazards and disruption in economic activities of the host communities amongst other concerns.
- “Permit me to state that the recent discovery of an illegal pipeline connection at kilometre 4, on the Trans-Escravos Pipeline, Yokri Community in Burutu Local Government Area of Delta State, was the tipping point which prompted the Federal Government to institute a 10-man special Investigative panel.
- “This discovery further brought to the fore some seeming gaps in the security arrangement and frameworks for securing the oil and gas infrastructure in the country.
- “Unfortunately, it is these identified gaps that are being exploited by criminals and economic saboteurs to undermine our national security.”
Solutions: The NSA added that the Nigerian Navy embarked on a series of intelligence-driven maritime security operations to combat oil theft and illegal oil bunkering in the Niger Delta.
He said the launch of the Falcon Eye System – a high tech real-time intelligence Maritime Domain Awareness facility domiciled with the Nigerian Navy and coordinated by the ONSA had been fully committed to addressing the emerging concern.
The facility has between August 2018 and January 2023 facilitated the prosecution of over 200 vessels involved in maritime criminality within Nigeria’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) up to the Republic of Togo, he said:
- “In addition, 83 oil tankers involved in various crude oil and product theft have been arrested, while the theft of over three million barrels of crude oil was prevented and 11 million litres of petrol and diesel were recovered.
- “Recent commendations from the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), European Union and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to Nigeria on its efforts in reducing maritime criminality in the Gulf of Guinea and successful prosecution of pirates in the region are quite instructive.
- “As such, it need not be stressed that technology remains a major force multiplier for any integrated solution or framework to address security concerns of this nature.”
What you should know
In 2022, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) made significant oil and gas discoveries in Bauchi and Gombe states, as well as Keana in Nasarawa state. These discoveries, according to KPMG experts, will require more crude oil investments in Nigeria.
Nigeria and Angola contributed to the increase in crude oil output for OPEC-13 members in January 2023, according to OPEC’s monthly oil market report.
Angola’s crude oil output increased from 1,088 million barrels per day (mb/d) in December 2022 to 1,105 mb/d in January 2023, while Nigeria’s crude oil output increased from 1,235 mb/d in December 2022 to 1,258 mb/d in January 2023.
Despite an increase of 22,833 thousand barrels per day in January 2023, Nigeria’s crude oil production still falls short of its OPEC production quota of 1.8 million bpd and the 2023 budget production target of 1.69 mb/d.
