The Federal Government revealed on Monday that over five years, crude oil valued at more than N4.3 trillion was stolen through 7,143 cases of pipeline vandalism.
This revelation was made during the Nigeria International Pipeline Technology and Security Conference in Abuja, centring around the theme “Bolstering Regulations, Technology, and Security for Growth.” The event was organized by the Pipeline Professionals Association of Nigeria.
A presentation by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), a federal government agency, emphasized that the issue of oil theft and losses in Nigeria had escalated into a national crisis.
Ogbonnaya Orji, the Executive Secretary of NEITI, stressed that oil theft represented an urgent and significant threat to the oil industry’s exploration and exploitation, with severe negative repercussions on economic growth, business opportunities, and the profit margins of oil companies.
Providing data from the agency’s…