Page 7 - DMEA Week 13 2022

DMEA POLICY & SECURITY DMEA

Nigeria names Bonny, Forcados

and Brass thieves’ top targets

AFRICA THE Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory according to This Day. “Basically, we are an oil
Commission (NUPRC) has identified the pipe- economy and when the upstream is sick, it affects
line networks serving the Bonny, Forcados and the well-being and the health of the country. The
Brass terminals as the biggest sources of crude oil situation that is happening in the upstream is
theft in the country. getting to the level of threat to the existence and
In a meeting with representatives of the Inde- well-being of Nigeria. As a responsible regulator,
pendent Petroleum Producers Group (IPPG) we are very concerned about it. We have been
and the Oil Producers Trade Section (OPTS) on doing a lot and we are not relenting. We will do
March 24, NUPRC officials said that these three everything possible to increase oil production in
networks appeared to be particularly vulnera- a manner that will make the nation benefit from
ble because of the economic challenges facing the upward swing in the international price of
host communities and some investors’ failure crude oil.”
to engage adequately with residents. They also
pointed to inadequate security and surveillance Existential threat
arrangements, the exposure of infrastructure Speaking for IPPG, Chikezie Nwosu, the manag-
facilities and compromises by stakeholders. ing director of Waltersmith Petroman, described
Additionally, they said the available data the problem of oil theft as pervasive and exten-
indicated that Nigeria may have lost as much as sive enough to be an “existential threat” to inde-
$3.27bn worth of crude oil to theft during the pendent producers. Thefts from IPPG’s member
13-month period between January 2021 and companies peaked at 91% of total volumes
February 2022. This amounts to $233.99mn per loaded in December 2021, compared with about
month, or $7.72mn per day, they stated. 4% in years past, he reported.
“The TNP [Trans Niger Pipeline] is the major
Better numbers issue,” he claimed, according to This Day. “We
Gbenga Komolafe, the CEO of NUPRC, fol- have seen crude theft grow from single-digit per-
lowed the presentation of these numbers by centages to reports of 91% in December for some
stressing that the commission’s information was of the operators who produce into the TNP, 75%
incomplete. He asked IPPG, OPTS and their in January, and the February report we got has an
individual member companies to help com- average of 82%.”
pile more accurate data on oil theft throughout
Nigeria. Organised criminality
“This is a one-agenda meeting, and it centres Speaking for OPTS, Richard Laing, the manag-
on the issue of crude oil theft,” he was quoted as ing director of ExxonMobil Nigeria, said that oil
saying by This Day. “The issue of oil theft has theft was, in many cases, more akin to organised
become a very worrisome one to the nation, to crime than to low-scale amateur operations.
the government and I believe to you as investors “The language is very important, and I think
in OPTS and IPPG, even as it is to us as your reg- we use ‘theft’ rather quickly. I don’t think this
ulators. So, this is for us to sit at a roundtable and is theft; this is organised criminal activity,” he
hear each other and share information.” remarked, according to This Day. “The level
He continued: “More worrisome is that in of sophistication in terms of tapping into the
recent times, we have had conflicting positions pipelines, the distributions, efforts required to
as to what is really happening in the upstream. move hundreds of thousands of barrels a day
As a responsible regulator, there’s need for us to isn’t some guy coming along and tapping into a
agree on the way forward and to hear your per- pipeline and taking [a] container [of] crude oil.
spective. We need to have accurate figures. As a It is organised criminality.”
government, we cannot continue to use abstract Laing added: “As an industry, I know how
or inaccurate figures in a matter as important as hard my colleagues work to produce products
crude oil theft.” that we need, and to suffer the level of theft that
NUPRC representatives described the prob- we have is disheartening. But more importantly,
lem as very serious, saying that theft had pre- it is a threat to investments – a threat to the
vented Nigeria from producing enough oil to health of the industry and wealth of the nation. It
meet its OPEC production quota in full. Komo- is important that the stakeholders integrate their
lafe, for his part, noted that the shortfall was activities and their thoughts. As OPTS, we have
actually harming the Nigerian economy. met with a number of stakeholders over the last
“The concern of the government is to several months, and we want to make sure that
increase our national oil production,” he said, whatever we do is joined up and effective.”™

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