Nigeria Has Lost $46 Billion Worth Of Crude Oil To Theft

In the decade to 2020, Nigeria lost to oil theft more than 619.7 million barrels of crude oil valued at $46.16 billion, representatives for the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) said at a forum this week.

During the period 2009 to 2020, Nigeria’s losses to oil theft averaged 140,000 barrels per day (bpd) valued at $10.7 million daily, the organization said, as quoted by local outlet Leadership.

NEITI has compiled reports to establish how much oil, gas, and mining companies paid to the country and how much of those revenues were actually received by the government.

More recently, Nigeria plans to hold an international roadshow to attract investments in its upstream sector, the petroleum regulator of OPEC’s biggest African oil producer said in a speech shared with Reuters this week.

The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) plans to organize in the coming weeks an international roadshow to pitch upstream investments in the country, which looks to boost its oil production and significantly raise its natural gas output.

“Whereas the global imperatives for energy transition is clear and justified, the need for Africa’s energy security, economic development and prosperity cannot be overemphasised,” the Nigerian regulator said.

Nigeria aims to significantly increase its oil production to up to 1.7 million bpd by November 2023, hoping to win a higher quota in the OPEC+ agreement, Gabriel Tanimu Aduda, Permanent Secretary at Nigeria’s Ministry of Petroleum Resources, told Energy Intelligence last month

Nigeria has consistently failed to produce to its quota in the OPEC+ agreement. The combination of pipeline vandalism and oil theft with a lack of investment in capacity has made Nigeria the biggest laggard in crude oil production in the OPEC+ alliance. Oil theft and pipeline vandalism have long plagued Nigeria’s upstream oil and gas industry, driving majors out of the country and often resulting in force majeure at the key crude oil export terminals.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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