By Emmanuel Nduka
Managing Director of TotalEnergies EP Nigeria, Mike Sangster has disclosed that Nigeria loses up to $10million daily to organized crude oil theft.
Sangster made this disclosure on Wednesday while speaking at the just concluded Nigerian Oil and Gas (NOG) Conference and Exhibition in Abuja.
Speaking during the Panel Session for industry players, he noted that the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) had made provision for the Host Community Trust Fund, which he said, is a step in the right direction to empower local communities and further create a clear and consistent framework across the industry.
Harping on the topic “The future of Nigeria’s energy sector in the PIA era”, he noted that the new regulation will halt activities of crude oil theft and pipeline vandals which is currently disrupting smooth operations of oil and gas companies.
He added that TotalEnergies had declared a force majeure on its OML58 and had stopped production since February 24 due to the vandalism of its oil and gas infrastructure.
“You can see some of the figures in the press! I mean, maybe it’s up to 100,000 barrels per day, which is being stolen.
“With crude oil selling at $100 per barrel, that means its $10million per day, which has been lost and mainly to the country because you know, NNPC has 60 percent of most of the joint ventures and we pay tax at 85 percent.
“That’s a huge loss for the country. So I think it really needs to be a priority to look beyond the host communities and how we can address the crude safety and eradicate it once and for all,” he added.
