Crude oil theft: Over 8,000 illegal refineries destroyed in six months- NNPCL

Over 8,000 illegal refineries have been destroyed within the last six months, according to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).

Murtala Muhammad, deputy manager of the NNPC Command and Control Centre, said this during a stakeholder engagement in Abuja over the weekend.

According to him, alongside the destruction of illegal refineries, 5,800 illegal oil pipeline connections were also detected and dismantled within the same period.
He expressed concern that crude oil theft is still a serious problem and listed Bayelsa, Rivers, Imo, and Abia as major hotspots for these criminal activities.

Speaking at the meeting, Olufemi Soneye, the Chief Corporate Communications Officer (CEO) of the oil conglomerate,  declared that production of 3 million barrels of crude oil per day is achievable from the 1.7 million with support from all stakeholders.

He said the political will in that regard is already provided by President Bola Tinubu with directives to relevant security agencies to stem the ugly tide of oil theft and pipeline vandalism which according to him, led to an increase in daily oil production from 1.4 million to 1.7milliion barrels per day now.

“Three million barrels of oil production per day is achievable in Nigeria if all the stakeholders work in synergy for that purpose from the security agencies both government and private owned, to oil companies and host communities.

“With expected synergy from all the relevant stakeholders on war against oil theft and pipeline vandalism, required enabling environment, would be in place for optimal oil production to the volume of 2.5 to 3 million barrels per day “, he said.

He also recalled a period when oil production plummeted to 900,000 barrels per day due to rampant oil theft and vandalism, before the intervention of private security firms and the military.

“At that time, we felt Nigeria was in trouble as far as oil theft was concerned but, the intensity of war against it, has allayed our fears “, he said.

In his paper presentation on “Balancing Reporting and Nation Building: The Role of National Assembly Press Corps’,  the resource person, Professor Taiye  Obateru, emphasized fairness and national interest in all stories.