Oil thieves steal crude oil worth N16.25tn from Niger Delta in 14 years

Nigeria lost a staggering 619.7 million barrels of crude oil, worth N16.25 trillion ($46.16 billion), due to crude oil theft between 2009 and 2020.

The Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) made this revelation in its latest policy brief titled “The cost of fuel subsidy: A case for policy review”.

The data showed that the volume of crude oil stolen represented a loss of over 140 thousand barrels per day, adding that between 2009 and 2018, the country lost 4.2 billion litres of petroleum products from refineries valued at $1.84 billion.

It also stated that the country spent over N13 trillion ($74 billion) on fuel subsidies between 2005 and 2021.

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Speaking on the numbers, a policy brief titled “The cost of fuel subsidy: A case for policy review”, Orji Ogbonnaya, the executive secretary of NEITI said: “The figure in relative terms is equivalent to Nigeria’s entire budget for health, education, agriculture, and defence in the last five years, and almost the capital expenditure for 10 years between 2011 and 2020.”

Highlighting other impacts of fuel subsidy costs, he said it disincentivised private sector investment in the downstream and midstream petroleum sector, worsened the country’s debt profile, and caused inefficient supply arrangements- scarcity.

Ogbonnaya further revealed that these findings have been submitted to the president through the Presidential Committee on Crude Oil Theft, and urged civil society organisations to urgently target issues in the oil and gas sector and also set an agenda for the incoming administration.

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