Nigeria records 172 crude oil theft incidents, detects 67 illegal refineries in one week —NNPCL

Nigeria recorded 172 crude oil theft incidents and also detected 67 illegal refineries in one week between November 11-17, 2023.

This was disclosed by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) via its weekly series: “Energy and You” aired weekly on the NTA network on Tuesday night.

The 67 illegal refineries were discovered in Oowodokpokpo and Obodo-Omadino in Delta State, Ekeremor in Bayelsa State, Ohaji-Egbema in Imo State, Owaza in Abia state, and Emoha in Rivers state.

Additionally, 12 vessels had AIS (Automatic Identification System) infractions, 8 illegal connections were detected in Abia, Imo, and Rivers states, 5 vandalism acts were found, and 5 illegal storage sites were located in Ughelli, Iyede, Olomoro, and Tori in Delta state.

Security agents also uncovered 54 wooden boats used for transporting stolen crude in Delta state, made 18 vehicle arrests in Patani, Kwale, Ughelli, and Abraka in Delta state, and identified 3 oil spills.

READ ALSO:Nigeria lost N4.3tn to oil theft in five years, records 7,143 pipeline vandalism cases

During the week in reference, the NNPCL highlighted the arrest of 27 suspects involved in crude oil theft. Among these incidents, 12 took place in the Deep Blue water, 45 in the Western region, 44 in the Central region, and 71 in the Eastern region within the oil-producing areas of the Niger Delta.

It would be recalled that Nigeria’s National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, had in August 2023 revealed that the country was losing a substantial 400,000 barrels of oil every day to crude oil thieves.

Ribadu pointed out that Nigeria has the capacity to produce a daily output of 2 million barrels of crude oil.

Unfortunately, the current production falls short of this potential, hovering at below 1.6 million barrels.

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