Nigeria Loses N877 billion, As It Struggles To Meet Crude Oil Production Target

The Executive Commissioner, Corporate Services and Administration of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Jide Adeola, said that Nigeria doesn’t meet its daily production target.

According to Adeola, the country has a 1.8 million barrels production target, however, it produces 1.23 million barrels of crude oil per day, recording a short fall of 570,000‬ barrels. 

This result into a loss of about N877 billion ($2.1 billion), Adeola said during an investigative public hearing on “Oil lifting, theft and the impact on petroleum production and oil revenues”. 

During the hearing chaired by Senator Bassey Akpan (YPP – Akwa Ibom North East), Adeola also revealed that record shows about 600,000 barrels of crude oil are stolen per day. 

Meanwhile, the National President of Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), Festus Osifo, blamed security personnel protecting the oil installations and locals operating illegal refineries for the stolen crude oil. 

Osifo said there’s a collaborative effort behind the crime, “One of the greatest problems we have, which nobody has highlighted is that there is strong connivance of our security forces in the crime. 

“There is no doubt about this. From our Army to our Naval officers, we have information that they pay their superiors to post them to some areas in the Niger Delta. 

“I can authoritatively inform this committee that men of the Nigerian Army and the Navy pay their superiors to be posted to Niger Delta. 

“Even when the former Commander of the Amphibious Brigade in Port Harcourt was removed, many of the men in the Command resisted being posted out due to lucrativeness of their operational areas. 

“I think the people who have a solution to this problem are not even the ones sitting here. They are the ones you will invite behind the camera.”