Nigeria loses 700,000 bpd to oil theft’

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Nigeria loses 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil, the Chief Upstream Investment Officer at the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPCL) in charge of Upstream Investment Management Services (NUIMS), Bala Wunti, has said.

Speaking during an interview on Arise TV’s the Morning Show yesterday he stated that the 700,000 barrels per day loss, as per NNPC’s calculations, translates to 21 million barrels per month. He also said there are other types of losses which he identified as engineering losses which, he said, nobody accounts for as it is a part of the engineering process.

He also said there is an actual loss where hydrocarbons are produced but get stolen and that there are opportunity losses, which arise because operators are unable to produce what was initially planned. He noted that there are varying figures on Nigeria’s crude oil theft losses but explained how the NNPC arrived at its figure.

He said: “Nigeria’s budget is anchored on 1.88 million barrels per day of crude oil production. “In August, Nigeria’s reported production output was 1 million barrels. “Therefore, the difference is what the country is losing, which is 700,000 barrels per day. “Note that the discrepancies in oil losses could be due to opportunity losses. This is why speculative figures are quoted as losses associated with crude oil theft. “As I speak to you, Brass and Bonny are on force majeure, which is about 300,000 barrels deferred already.

“We have been working hard with the private security contractor to return the Trans-Niger pipeline. “Hopefully, we will open Bonny very soon. One of our major trunk lines – the Nembe Creek trunk line cannot be used because of security vulnerabilities, although Trans Forcados, Escravos, and Trans-Remo are back.

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“Now, the previous security architecture was not working, so we carried out a robust diagnosis, which revealed major issues to be addressed. “The issues are that Nigeria has a difficult geological terrain. So, it is impossible to have end-to-end visibility, particularly in the maritime economic zone. “What is seen in the blue water is not connected to the brown water and the backwater. “So, there is a varied desegregated visibility. Also, Wunti talked about the lack of coordination among the sector players – regulators, security agencies, communities, and private security outfits.

“However, the new security architecture is anchored on rectangular architecture, reliant on a command-andcontrol centre technology that brings together the security and intelligence agencies, the regulators, and the community.

“Today, we have end-toend visibility. We can detect, deter and respond. “We are still making a lot of improvements in our response. In responding, we detect, deactivate, destroy and remove, which is a complex process. “Sometimes, we have to destroy a whole vessel. Removing these vessels is a big job. “And we are recording significant success because of the improved security situation. We are now almost at an average of 350,000 to 400,000 barrels increase.”

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