Nuhu Ribadu, the National Security Adviser (NSA), stated over the weekend that oil theft and vandalism are impeding Nigeria’s ability to produce the anticipated volume of crude oil that it should.
Despite efforts to solve the problem, Mr. Ribadu claims that Nigeria continues to lose 400,000 barrels of crude oil every day to local and foreign thieves.
Ribadu revealed this while leading a presidential mission to examine oil and gas installations in the Rivers State local councils of Etche and Owaza in the Abia state.
He claimed that pipeline vandals and oil thieves’ actions had hurt the country’s economy and were partly to blame for the country’s rising cost of living.
“It is unfortunate that few individuals would steal our common resources, and in the process cause unbelievable loss to the nation, communities and the people,” Ribadu said.
“Nigeria has the capacity to produce two million barrels of crude daily, but we are currently producing less than 1.6 million barrels due to theft and vandalisation of pipelines.’’
“So, we’re talking about 400,000 barrels of crude oil going to waste, with few criminals and economic saboteurs not even getting much out of it,” he added.
Ribadu also said President Bola Tinubu’s administration was concerned about the development and is already taking actionable steps to address the matter.
The NSA boss called for a united front to tackle oil theft and end decades of attacks on the nation’s oil and gas infrastructure.
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