Nigeria has lost $4.3 million over the last two years as a result of oil theft in the Niger Delta, the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative said in a press statement published on its website last week.
NEITI’s executive secretary, Zainab Ahmed, called for urgent collaboration between oil companies, communities and government and security agencies to provide an adequate response to the theft after visiting Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s Bonny Oil Terminal.
Ahmed expressed concern that oil theft, proliferation of illegal refineries, pipe line vandalization, and environmental pollution in the Niger Delta have risen to alarming proportions and become a major threat to the country’s economy.
Pipeline damage as a result of illegal bunkering frequently disrupts the flow of Nigeria’s oil to international markets. Most Recently, Shell was forced to declare force majeure on its exports of Bonny Light crude due to “incessant crude theft and illegal bunkering on Nembe Creek Trunkline.”
Nigeria is Africa’s largest oil producer.
