the Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has revealed that an estimated 40 per cent of the volumes of crude oil losses in the Nigerian petroleum industry are due to measurement inaccuracies and not theft as is popularly believed.
Gbenga Komolafe, Chief Executive, NUPRC, who revealed this at the start of the week said the revelation followed a forensic audit on crude theft numbers, conducted by the commission covering the period from January 2020 to November 2022.
He disclosed this in Lagos at the Petroleum Club Quarterly Dinner.
Komolafe noted that the forensic audit was to ascertain with accuracy the stolen volume of crude oil within the reference period.
In April 2022, the Group Managing Director of the NNPC Limited, Mele Kyari, disclosed that Nigeria lost $4 billion to oil theft at the rate of 200,000 barrels per day in 2021. Last September, the NNPC said that the country loses 470,000 barrels of crude oil monthly amounting to $700 million to oil theft.
The federal government in its draft fiscal strategy paper for 2023 through 2025 said that oil revenue underperformed due to significant production shortfalls such as shut-ins resulting from pipeline vandalism and crude oil theft.
