Nigeria Loses $7billion Yearly To Oil Theft
By Akanimo Sampson - Port Harcourt,Nigeria
AT a price regime of between 45 and 50 US dollars,Nigeria is suspected to be losing seven billion dollars, about
900billion naira in the local currency yearly,to oil theft.This theft is widely known in the country, as illegal oil
bunkering.
POLITICAL leaders of the Niger Delta, Nigeria’s principal oil and gas producing region, have underscored the need for
urgent logistic support to he security agencies to combat the menace of illegal oil bunkering.
For them, by its costly, high-skilled ad elitist nature, illegal oil bunkering is beyond the ordinary peoples of the
Niger Delta.
Bayelsa State governor, Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha and his Delta State counterpart, Chief James Ibori, have always
maintained that illegal oil bunkering is being perpetrated and legitimised by highly placed and well-connected
individuals from outside the Niger Delta.
Security reports however, have it that the Federal Government was losing 400,000 to 500,000 barrels of oil per day to
illegal bunkering. Some oil worker in the region have put the value of this to over N900 billion a year.
A Special Presidential Security Committee, that was chaired by the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Alexander
Ogomudia, had earlier reported that a “Cartel or mafia” was behind the flourishing illegal oil bunkering.
According to their report which has remained largely unpublished, the oil mafia is composed of highly placed and
powerful individuals within the society, who run a network of agents to steal crude oil and finished produce from
pipelines in the Niger Delta region.
The report claimed that many of the militant youth groups “could be enjoying the patronage of some retired or serving
military and security personnel”.
Apparently acting on the Ogomudia security report, the Nigerian Navy is already poised to combat the thriving illegal
oil bunkering network. The commanding officer of NNS Pathfinder, captain Peter Esemo Oraka, has said that the navy was
determined to fight illegal oil bunkering activities along the country’s waterways.
He said the navy has been an active participant in nation building, national security and in the fight against illegal
activities.
Going by the seeming complex nature of the oil mafia, leaders of the Niger Delta have counsel Abuja to provide adequate
logistic support for the security agencies to crush the cartel.
They have also decried the absence of peace in the Niger Delta. They however, attributed it to the poor infrastructural
development in the region in spite of the region’s enormous contribution to the national wealth.