The President of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation stated that the country is losing 200,000 barrels of crude oil daily due to theft and vandalism, highlighting the financial losses stemming from insecurity.
Mele Kyari, the President and Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, during a meeting with Lucky Irabor, the new commander of the Nigerian Army, remarked in the company's statement that "the losses in crude oil are still ongoing... on average, we lose 200,000 barrels of crude daily," attributing these losses to thieves and vandals. In turn, the new commander of the Nigerian Army, Lucky Irabor, announced that the armed forces will protect Nigeria's oil and gas. Irabor emphasized that Nigeria's economic life is almost entirely dependent on the national oil company, hence all possible efforts must be made to provide everything needed.
It is noteworthy that Nigeria's daily losses amount to over $13 million, given a price of about $66.70 per barrel of Brent crude, totaling more than $4.8 billion annually, at a time when Nigeria is in dire need of money to combat poverty, improve security, and boost the economy, which contracted by 1.92% in 2020 for reasons including the COVID-19 pandemic.
Goodwin Obaseki, the head of the Federal Oil Pipeline Surveillance Committee in Nigeria, had announced in March of last year that the country suffered losses reaching $1.35 billion due to oil theft, explaining that nearly 22.6 million barrels of oil were stolen during the first half of 2019. He warned of an additional loss of $2.7 billion over the next two years. Obaseki stated, "This loss will double if the problem is not resolved," confirming that these figures, which illustrate "the enormous losses," were presented by a committee of 13 members to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, along with recommendations addressed to the federal government.
The Federal Oil Pipeline Surveillance Committee in Nigeria was formed to address the impacts of vandalism and oil theft, as well as the illegal storage of oil. It is also worth mentioning that Nigeria is the second-largest producer of crude oil in Africa, with daily production estimated at two million barrels.
