Due to crude oil theft, Nigeria lost a staggering $1 billion in revenue in the first quarter of 2022. Therefore, endangering the economy of Africa’s top producer. This disclosed by Gbenga Komolafe, the head of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission in a statement.
Nigeria loses millions of barrels of crude oil each year to theft and vandalism. This is including the theft of crude from a network of pipelines run by large oil companies. This illustrates how lax security results in significant financial losses for the nation.
Only about 132 million barrels of the 141 million barrels of oil produced in the first quarter of 2022. They received at export terminals, according to Gbenga Komolafe, the chairman of NUPRC.
Komolafe said, “This indicates that over nine million barrels of oil is lost to crude theft. This equates to a loss of government revenue of approximately $1 billion in just one quarter,”
-Nairametrics.