On Wednesday, the House of Representatives resolved to investigate the alleged theft of crude oil and the resulting loss of revenue in the nation’s oil and gas sector.
As a result, the Green Chamber agreed to form an ad hoc committee to investigate individuals involved in the alleged crime and bring them to justice. The committee was supposed to deliver its report in six weeks.
This followed the passage of a resolution by Philip Agbese, a member from Benue State’s Ado/Okpokwu/Ogbadigbo Federal Constituency, calling the House to investigate alleged crude oil theft in the country.
Agbese anchored his motion on recent reports of loss of trillions of naira from crude oil theft as well as loss of revenue from gas exploration in the land.
He noted that “According to reports, about 40 per cent of crude oil loss is due to inaccuracies in measurement, and theft as metering errors continue to occur as a result of poor maintenance of metering facilities, thus resulting to lack of transparency in hydrocarbon accounting. “
The lawmaker lamented the recent “Reports which revealed that in 2021 alone, Nigeria lost $4 billion to oil theft at the rate of 200,000 barrels per day, and the figures have risen since then.
“We are also concerned that security agencies of the Federal Government are allegedly complicit and largely responsible for facilitating most of the oil theft in the Niger Delta. The Nigerian military has been accused several times of being behind 99 per cent of oil theft and despite promises to conduct proper investigations, no substantial action has been taken by the Federal Government to address the matters raised.”
Agbese cited a 2022 report by the Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative that about 619.7 million barrels of crude oil, valued at $46.16bn had been stolen in the last 12 years, while stakeholders had often described crude oil theft in the country as an organised crime perpetrated by the Nigerian elite.
He described it as worrisome “that in spite of the huge funds appropriated to adequately equip Nigeria’s security and intelligence agencies, their performance in terms of curbing oil theft has been abysmal and;
“Further disturbed that despite the enormous resources at the disposal of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, they have, in active connivance with national and multinational oil and gas companies, allegedly continued to sabotage every effort to ensure an effective running of metering facilities at the well heads, flow stations, loading platforms.”