Oil Theft: Nigeria lost about $10bn in seven months – Speaker Abbas

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Abbas Tajudeen said on Thursday, July 25, that the country lost about 10 billion dollars in revenue to crude oil theft between January and July 2024.

Speaking through his deputy, Benjamin Kalu at the commencement of an investigative hearing on crude oil theft and revenue losses thereof, Abbas said it was practically impossible for the government to meet its daily obligations to the people with such huge revenue loss.

He spoke just as the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume said the government was spending not less than 1.5 billion dollars on pipeline surveillance to prevent crude oil theft leading to huge revenue loss.

The speaker also said that those sabotaging the oil sector were known and would be unmasked by the House through the investigation, regretting that those saddled with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the nation have resorted to self-service and have decided to serve themselves.

He said: “Between January and July, Nigeria lost 437,000 barrels of crude oil per day to oil theft, and by the current value that amounts to about 10 billion dollars in the last seven months.

“How can a government meet meet its obligations to the people like that especially when they have lost hope? I want to tell those planning to protest that the government has lost 10 billion dollars in the last seven months.”

Akume said that available records from the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative revealed that about 46 billion dollars’ worth of crude was stolen between 2009 and 2020.

The SGF, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, General Services, Maurice Nnamdi Mbaeri, said that the country has consistently failed to meet its production quota set by OPEC which has not only affected its revenue but hampers the provision of social services that Nigerians rely on.