Kyari rallies NUPENG, NARTO, others support to tackle crude oil theft
He stated this on Tuesday, at the 5th quadrennial delegates’
conference holding in Asaba, Delta State.
The conference with theme, "Just Energy Transition: For
Oil and Gas Workers Social Welfare and Security," was attended by the
Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, represented by the
President of the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, Ayuba Wabba; Governor of Delta
State, represented by his Deputy, Kingsley Otuaro, Group Executive Director (Upstream), NNPC Ltd,
Engr. Adokiye Tombomieye and other senior government officials.
The theft of crude oil has been having a negative effect on
the revenue of the Federal Government.
This development is worrisome as it is denying the country
the much-needed funding to boost economic development.
Apart from revenue loss, the issue of oil theft is currently
threatening not only the NNPC's quest for energy security for the country, it
is also having a debilitating effect on Nigeria’s revenue earnings.
A Report released last month during a meeting on crude oil
theft between the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission and Oil
Producers Trade Section, as well as the Independent Petroleum Producers Group,
showed that between January 2021 and February 2022, Nigeria lost a whopping sum
of $3.2bn to crude oil theft.
The amount when converted by the official N416.25 to a
dollar exchange rate translates to about N1.36trn.
The Report revealed that oil theft rose significantly
between 2021 and 2022, with over 90 per cent of total crude produced at the
Bonny Terminal stolen in January 2022.
Speaking on the development, the NNPC GMD told participants
at the NUPENG conference said that the impact of pipeline vandalism has reduced
the capacity of the country to meet its production quota.
He lamented that currently, Nigeria is producing less than
1.5 million barrels per day of crude oil.
Kyari said as major stakeholders in the oil and gas
business, time has come for NUPENG and NARTO to collaborate with the NNPC in
bringing the issue of crude oil theft to an end.
He said, "You can see the short trouble that we have
and what it has caused all of us. But more than this comrades, our locally
industries is terribly challenged and you may be aware, we have seen vandal
activities around our areas of operations not just in the Niger Delta but across other corridors
of product supply.
"Activities of oil thieves that has gotten to a limit
that we haven’t seen before almost bringing down this industry to its knees
today.
"As we speak now, our production total is less than 1.5
million barrels per day. This no doubt will affect the investing companies,
they will not have the resources to continue to invest and therefore making
more and more sustainable employment to become a challenge, no doubt about it.
"That is why all of us must practically come together
to see how we can contend it. There is so much going on now. We are
leading a process to ensure that we
intervene in the security matter.
"We want to ensure that very body is involved so that
ultimately we are able to get back this industry or otherwise this industry
will collapse in our hands and if it does, we will not be talking about
employment and this is the reality we are facing today.
"You are very critical in stopping some of the
situations today because when people steal products and they convert them to
diesel, they will use your trucks to bring them into the country.
"And you can play a very prominent role to stop some of
these transactions going on and I really implore all of us to come on the desk
so that this industry can survive.
"We are partners and workers in the industry and NNPC
is here to protect and preserve every institution that is helping this industry
to grow and survive.
On the issue of energy transition, the GMD said that this
concept does not mean that oil will disappear by 2050.
He said what the concept of energy transition means is that
countries should start embracing more cleaner source of energy that are more
friendly to the environment.
He stated that the NNPC is also championing this initiative
by shifting more attention to gas production which is a more cleaner source of
energy than fossil fuel.
Kyari said, "No doubt energy transition is going on and
for emphasis the meaning is that oil is not going to vanish by year 2050 or
2060. What it means is that oil will still be relevant; there will still be 100
million barrels of oil demand by year 2050.
"It is the use and the cleanliness utilization of it
that will change and the activities that businesses do to ensure that the next
event of our activities will become positive in such a way that you have a net
zero situation
"The world has accepted gas as a transition fuel. That
you do need to have more gas development
so that you can gradually transit.
"So, Oil and gas business is not going to vanish. It
will change in form and in utility.
"In our case in Nigeria as we all know, we are energy deficient
and access to clean power is still very low as we all know. Then this is the
first step that we have to take to ensure that we arrive at that clean
transition.
President Muhammadu Buhari had at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow made a commitment to net zero emissions by 2060.
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