Nigerian refineries lost $1.8 billion to oil theft in nine years

This was revealed by the Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, Ogbonnaya Orji at the opening ceremony of the 2024 NEITI board retreat/meeting in Lagos.

Between 2009 and 2018, Nigeria lost 4.2 billion litres of petroleum products from its refineries due to oil theft, estimated at 140,000 barrels daily, PUNCH reported.

“Figures contained in our 2009 to 2020 audits have put Nigeria’s losses to crude oil theft over a 12-year period at 619.7 million barrels valued at $46.16bn or N16.25tn. Similarly, between 2009 and 2018, the country also lost 4.2 billion litres of petroleum products from refineries valued at $1.84 billion.”

He added that these losses and their negative effects on the economy prompted the previous administration to form a special panel on oil theft and losses to study the situation.

Oil theft, pipeline vandalism, and other challenges in the upstream oil sector have plagued Nigeria’s crude production for several years.

Major oil companies have lamented the impact of these issues on the availability of crude for local refineries. Low crude oil production in Nigeria has been cited as a factor limiting international oil companies’ capacity to supply crude to the behemoth Dangote Petroleum Refinery and other modular refineries.

Orji mentioned that NEITI produced a report with recommendations on how to stop oil theft in Nigeria and urged the current administration to review and implement those recommendations.