Against the backdrop of surging crude oil theft in Nigeria, the United States (US) has urged the Nigerian government to implement measures to curb large-scale oil theft in the Niger Delta.
The appeal came at the end of a seven-day visit to Nigeria by a US delegation led by Carlos Pascal, special envoy for energy at the Department of State and Sharon Burke, assistant secretary of defence for operational energy, according to a statement issued late Wednesday by the US Embassy in Abuja.
It would be recalled that Olusegun Obasanjo, former president, in a letter to the President Goodluck Jonathan, had outlined three imperatives in the nation’s oil and gas industry, which include stopping oil stealing, encourage investment, especially by international oil companies and improving the present poor management of the industry.
The US delegation met with local, state, and federal officials, as well as with members of Nigerian civil society, the statement said.
“Our interlocutors in civil society, the private sector, and many parts of government affirmed that key steps to address oil theft and revenue loss have been well established, particularly by Nigerian experts,” Platts quoted the delegation as saying.
“We heard consistently that now the challenge is implementation,” it added.
Oil theft remains a major security headache for Nigeria, which loses about 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude, according to government estimates, to thieves who tap into pipelines and well-heads and disrupt production.
Large scale oil theft has forced the country to lower its production target for 2014 to 2.383 million bpd from its 2.53 million bpd target for this year.
The House of Representatives on Wednesday set up a 17-man committee to investigate the menace of crude oil theft within the country.
House Speaker Aminu Tambuwal said the committee is charged with uncovering the key players behind oil theft as well as documenting the effects of oil theft on the federal government and the Niger Delta region.
