By Emmanuel Nduka
Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited has blamed the activities of crude oil theft in the oil producing region of Nigeria, lamenting that its revenue has come under threat, thus, it may be forced to exit the country.
Managing Director and Country Chair for Shell Companies in Nigeria, Osagie Okunbor, said this has resulted in two of its major pipelines shutting.
Speaking at the just-concluded Nigeria Oil and Gas (NOG) Conference held in Abuja, Okunbor said oil theft was one of the reasons that Nigeria could not meet its quota of 1.8 million barrels per day as instituted by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), stating that it has recorded a constant drop in its production numbers.
“Two of our most important pipelines in this country today are shut down with hundreds of thousands of barrels a day shut-in,” Okunbor said.
He added that local companies which won licences to develop marginal fields would face challenges in transporting their crude once they start production.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) disclosed that Nigeria lost $1billion in revenue during the first quarter of 2022 due to crude oil theft.
NUPRC boss, Gbenga Komolafe, said out of the 141 million barrels of oil produced in the first quarter of 2022, only about 132 million barrels of oil were received at export terminals.
