AACS Fortnightly
(Mondays)
19th June 2023

From the Chairman’s Desk,

Setting The Economic Agenda Series – OIL THEFT

At AACS, the fourth of our six critical issues in setting the economic agenda is Oil Theft https://lnkd.in/eiRE9A6S. In Nigeria, an average of 1.1m barrels of oil are produced and exported daily (BPD), as against the OPEC global quota of 1.8m BPD. This goes to the heart of the nation’s revenue, and limits its income stream. Recent findings put Nigeria’s losses to crude oil theft at an estimated $46bn in the last decade, and has worsened in the last 3 years. We have established Revenue as the major problem of the nation, and this brazen theft of almost 35% of the daily revenue is a crisis worthy of a state of emergency.

This crisis needs to be stopped now to have any fighting chance of recovery from economic strangulation. The top and biggest need to achieve this, is the Political Will. Oil theft is not basic burglary, and requires huge industrial scale logistics. Consequently, the security agencies must be reconfigured to deal with it accordingly. The marching order to the service chiefs by the President and co-opting the local community leaders into the quest, is a great start.

The government must work on initiatives to support the host communities, and improve their general well being. The engagement of some private security firms to combat oil theft has led to discovery of several illegal pipelines, refineries, transport vehicles and smuggling routes. This is commendable and must be ramped up. There should be an increase in private security contracts and the use of special security forces to protect the vulnerable pipelines. As reiterated in the past by AACS https://lnkd.in/ejSkJbUZ, modular refineries must be encouraged to increase local production BPD.

In an era where we hope to ramp the nation’s Revenue to GDP to about 25%, this oil theft malaise must stop. AACS looks forward to the initiatives and strategies to be implemented in solving this issue, and perhaps as promised by the new administration, ramp the nation’s output per day to 4m barrels in four years.

Falil Ayo Abina

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