The Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of the NNPCL, Mr. Mele Kyari has stated that illegal refineries at a time supplied total diesel consumed in the country.
He said this in an interview on Channels Television, Business Morning program where he commented on efforts to tackle insecurity and crude oil theft across the Niger Delta.
According to him, at a particular time, diesel importation into the country was near zero while there was no diesel scarcity meaning that the total consumption was from these illegal refineries.
He noted that there were over 20,000 pits dotted across the region responsible for crude oil theft but the scale has reduced over time due to efforts of security agencies.
In his words, “When we started this process of deactivation in 2022, we deactivated 8,684 illegal refineries. They are not refineries really, just boiling points, we don’t know what name to call them. Then you have integral connections to the pipeline, we had 6,610 illegal connections to the pipeline, and we have removed about 5,913, which means we still have over 1000 that have not been removed and they are there, they connect every day that we remove.”
“At a point, you may not be aware, imports of AGO in the country were almost nil and there was no scarcity of AGO in the country. They are all actually boiling and at a point everywhere you go, it is the same AGO that is coming from these creeks that we are using all over the country.”
He also noted that efforts of the federal government through security operatives have achieved significant results going by the decline in illegal refineries being destroyed across the Niger Delta.
Crude oil theft in the Niger Delta and its impact on oil production
The ongoing issue of oil theft in the Niger Delta continues to be a major challenge, with military forces frequently discovering new illegal operations each week. This poses a serious problem for the Federal Government, as Nigeria struggles to meet its OPEC quota due to widespread oil theft.
- In 2024 so far, Nigeria has consistently failed to meet its OPEC oil production quota of 1.5 million barrels per day severely impacting revenues and foreign exchange accruals.
- The Ministry of Petroleum Resources has set a target of 2 million barrels before the end of the year.
- As part of efforts to increase production and stem theft, the federal government engaged local security contractors to check against the activities of oil thieves but the degree of impact of that engagement remains to be seen.
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