The state-run oil firm Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)
has said the country lost 300,000 barrels of oil per day, or 109,500,000 barrels a year, to thieves who launched severe attacks on critical export pipeline system in 2013.
The local media Wednesday quoted NNPC’s Group Managing Director Andrew Yakubu as giving the figures at the ongoing Nigerian Oil and Gas Conference in the nation’s capital, Abuja.
“In 2013, Nigeria – Africa’s largest oil producer – suffered severe attacks on its critical export pipeline system leading to the loss and or deferment of about 300,000 barrels per day. This deferred production is equivalent to the total production of Equatorial Guinea and larger than the entire production of Ghana, Congo Brazzaville, Cameroon and Gabon,” the NNPC boss said.
He said the incessant vandalism of crude oil export pipelines, domestic crude oil and refined petroleum product pipelines had negative impact on the nation’s economy.
Industry analysts who computed the figures of stolen crude oil barrels over a 12-month period said Nigeria must have lost at least US$12 billion to oil theft in 2013.
Oil theft is often associated with criminals who tap crude from pipelines for local refining.
Thousands of barrels of stolen oil are also ferried secretly on the high seas outside the country through bunkering.
