He said 4,876 out of 5,570 illegal connections on oil
pipelines have been removed, adding that “crude oil theft is almost an
end-to-end issue” in Nigeria.
“We have also removed 4,876 illegal connections to a
pipeline out of 5,570 that we have discovered”, Kyari said.
“Some of the scale of the infractions that we see is
unbelievable. We are not able to deal with it. When you remove one connection,
the next day in the same location, someone will replace it.
“In most of these locations, they are less than a hundred
metres from settlement. Some are even less than a hundred meters from the local
government headquarters.”
Kyari said oil theft has made it nearly impossible to
predict the daily output of crude oil.
“These evils are being perpetrated unabated, that this makes
it impossible to guarantee the production that would happen the next day,” the
NNPC boss said.
“But today, we are struggling to meet the budget estimate of
1.6 million barrels per day. This by no means is related to crude oil theft.
“In 2022, it became
so obvious that if something dramatic is not done, we are going to run into
trouble.
“On a specific date, our production came down to as low as
1.1 million barrels per day. And on a particular date, we have gone below a
million barrels.”
Alhassan Ado-Doguwa, chairman of the committee, said the
illegal connections are not only on oil pipelines.
“It is saddening to note that these infractions do not stop
with the pipelines, daily breaches are also recorded at the oil well heads,
flow stations, loading, and export terminals, among others”, he said.
“We are compiling the
facts and figures.”
According to Ado-Doguwa, instances, where approvals are
hastily granted to vessels involved in crude theft just to cover official complicity,
are reported.
The federal government has invested billions of naira in the
security of its oil assets and is currently engaging the services of Tantita
Security Services Limited — a private security outfit run by the ex-militant
warlord, Government Ekpemupolo — to protect its pipeline network at the cost of
N48 billion annually.
The NNPC has also entered several partnerships security
agencies in Nigeria to curb oil theft.
