Nigeria lost $41.9billion to crude, products theft in 10 years –NEITI

Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) on Wednesday, gave a startling revelation that Nigeria lost a whopping $41.9 billion to crude oil and refined petroleum products theft in the last 10 years. 
The loss according to the agency averaged $11million daily, which translates to $349 million a month and about $4.2 billion annually. The transparency agency, in a policy briefing titled “Stemming the Increasing Cost of Oil Theft to Nigeria” released on Wednesday in Abuja, noted that the value of crude oil and allied products so far lost equalled thecurrent size of Nigeria’s entire foreign reserves.
To check further haemorrhage of the nation’s commonwealth in the hands of vandals and hydrocarbon thieves, the agency has urged the government to embrace oil fingerprinting technology, comprehensive metering infrastructure of all facilities, and other creative strategies to tackle the scourge.
NEITI, while giving a breakdown of the growing oil theft, revealed that the nation lost $38.5billion on crude theft alone.
It further said $1.56billion was lost to domestic crude theft and another $1.8billion on refined petroleum products between 2009 and 2018.
The agency further expressed concerns that in the face of current dwindling revenues, paying priority attention to curb oil theft in the country’s oil and gas industry has become both necessary and urgent to expand revenue generation.
NEITI said; “While figures from government put the loss at between 150,000-250,000 bpd, data from private studies estimate the figure to be between 200,000-400,000 bpd. This implies that Nigeria may be losing up to a fifth of its daily crude oil production to oil thieves and pipeline vandals”, the report said.
“On comparative analysis of the size and implication of the losses to the country’s current dwindling revenue profile, NEITI renewed its appeal to the government to curb oil theft to reduce budget deficits and external borrowing”.
“Stemming this haemorrhage and leakages should be an urgent priority for Nigeria at a time of dwindling revenues and increasing needs”, the report stressed
According to the NEITI report, what the country lost in 20 months in fiscal terms is “Enough to finance the proposed budget deficit for 2020; in 15 months to cover total proposed borrowing or increase capital budget by 100 per cent and in five months to cover pensions, gratuities and retirees’ benefits for 2020”.