Chief Of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Awwal Gambo, has said that most of the claims of losses Nigeria has incurred as a result of oil theft are definitely outrageous and unrealistic. Alluding to reports that between 20,000 and 200,000 barrels of crude oil were being stolen daily in Nigeria, Admiral Gambo said 100,000 barrels of crude was the equivalent of 15.8 million litres of crude oil requiring a five-ton barge to make 3,160 trips to convey to a mother vessel within a day.
He said: “Most of these claims are definitely outrageous and unrealistic.” Vice Admiral Gambo stated that even if there were enough barges to do this, it was highly unlikely given the heightened presence of security forces in the creeks and estuaries as well as the subsisting operations specifically targeted at this type of criminal activity.
He spoke at Newsnight, a current affairs programme, on Channels Television, on Monday.
According to him, there is a significant miscalculation in determining how much Nigeria is losing as a result oil theft. He argued that oil losses due to other factors were often lumped together as theft and thereafter put out outrageous figures as the volume of crude oil stolen because of lack of effectiveness on the part of security agencies.
He said: “We need to understand the differences between oil theft and oil losses. While oil theft is siphoning crude oil from vandalised pipes into barges, oil losses occur when there is known production, especially during shut-ins and force majeures as the Federal Government does not earn the desired revenue it should.
“Losses also occur as a result of metering errors on the operating platforms as read. But the volume of crude oil shot-ins from non-production is often added to figures for oil theft instead of declaring them as oil losses. This should not be.”
