Oil Theft: Falana Says N17bn Allocation To Protect Oil Assets Missing

The federal government has failed to account for the N17 billion allocation to prevent oil theft in the country, Femi Falana, a human rights activist, has said.

The incidences of crude oil theft cost the country at least $7 million, with over 700,000 barrels of crude stolen daily from the creeks in the Niger Delta, according to the Ministry of Petroleum Resources.

The country has now lost its prime position as Africa’s top crude oil producer to Angola due to its failure to meet Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, quota, with revenue from oil export hard hit.

As a way out of the problem, the Buhari administration recently awarded a N44 billion pipeline protection contract to repentant militant Government Ekpumoplo also known as Tompolo.

Not a few Nigerians have condemned the government’s decision to award the multi-billion-naira contract to the former warlord, saying, security agencies and not non-state actors should protect national assets.

Speaking at an event organized by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Projects, SERAP at the weekend, Falana, “we must take advantage of this forum to expose the government for the claim that they do not know those who are stealing oil in the Niger Delta. I hope the government people are going to listen well. For the first time in 50 years, we are unable to meet our oil quota in a very shameful manner. Our quota is 1.8 million barrels of crude oil per day.

“Today, the government claims we are producing only 900,000 barrels. What that means is that at 100 dollars per barrel, it’s about 99 million dollars per day.

“We cannot be producing oil for thieves. No resourceful government in the world today can say we don’t know why thieves tamper with computers because technology has gone beyond this level. We have 36 oil terminals; only 20 have meters.

“So, for the remaining 16 deliberately, we don’t know how much oil is produced. We don’t know how much oil is taken out of those areas. So, we must insist that the government, as a matter of urgency, acquire metres for all the oil terminals.”