The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) has confirmed that Nigeria’s oil output had dipped below 1.5 million barrels per day (mbpd) following unbridled theft in the petroleum industry.
The company’s Group Managing Director (GMD), Malam Mele Kyari, who gave this hint on Tuesday at the 5th National Union of Petrol and Engineering and Gas (NUPENG) workers Quadrennial Delegates Conference in Asaba, Delta State, expressed serious concern over Nigeria’s inability to increase crude oil production due to the activities of oil thieves.
According to him, Nigeria’s current total crude oil production is less than 1.5 mbpd due to the worsening cases of large-scale oil theft and pipeline vandalism.
The NNPC boss, who spoke on the theme ‘Just Energy Transition: For oil and gas workers social welfare and security’ at the forum, however, explained there was a new collaboration by the NNPC with security agencies, host communities and all political leaders to reverse the worrisome phenomenon/
Kyari further clarified: “Locally our industry is terribly challenged. We have seen vandal activities around our areas of operation, not just in the Niger Delta but other corridors of products supply, activities of oil thieves that have gotten to a limit that we haven’t seen before, almost bringing down this industry to its knees today.
“As we speak now our production total is less than 1.5 million barrels per day. This no doubt will affect the investing companies, they will not have the resources to continue to invest.
“This is why all of us must come together to see how we can contain this. There is so much going on now, and we are leading the process to ensure that we intervene in a secure manner including the involvement of communities and all the political leaders.
“Everybody must be involved so that ultimately we will be able to get back this industry, otherwise this industry will collapse in our hands, and if it does we will not be talking about employment, and this will be the reality we are facing today.
“What is happening now is not sustainable, it will crash if we don’t do something about it. I’m sure the leadership of NUPENG will see this and work with us. Needless to say, we are partners with NUPENG, and other partners in the industry”, Kyari added.
In recent times, industry analysts have been expressing concerns about rising oil theft in the upstream sector with the attendant negative implications for the nation’s budgetary system and sustainable growth.
For instance, a leading cleric and General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, had last Sunday during his sermon, rued the rising trend of oil theft in Nigeria, warning that if the menace is not tackled, the collective efforts to grow the economy and guarantee the future of the youths will be wasted.
