How Nigeria Aims To Curb Oil Theft, Kyari Reveals

By Tolulope Oke

Despite a boom in oil prices, Nigeria says it will construct a security infrastructure resembling that of Saudi Arabia’s Aramco to curb oil theft and revive a floundering economy.

Nigeria has seen its output drop to just over one million barrels per day as a result of widespread crude oil theft that has been going on for a long time and is forcing oil companies operating in the once-profitable onshore and shallow water fields of the nation to halt production.

According to Mele Kyari, MD of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, the new security architecture will soon be introduced and would aid in stopping the huge oil pipeline vandalism that has caused the nation to lose 30% of its produced volumes to petroleum thieves.

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Being Africa’s biggest oil producer, it has been unable to meet its OPEC quota since the beginning of this year due to rampant theft and vandalism.

Output fell to 1.43 million barrels a day in the three months through June, the lowest quarterly production since 2016, according to the nation’s statistics agency. This was the third consecutive quarter of oil production decline in Nigeria and the country is no longer able to meet its OPEC quota.

With oil production lagging, Nigeria is dealing with a huge dilemma of higher spending amidst declining revenues and a debilitating debt crisis at a time when it cannot raise taxes because of tepid economic growth.