High-profile Theft Denying Nigeria Benefits Of Oil Production – Okowa

ice presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) and governor of Delta, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, has revealed Nigeria is not getting maximum benefit from its oil production because it was hamstrung by high-profile oil theft.

Okowa, who stated this while featuring on Channels Television’s ‘Peoples Townhall’, a special programme for presidential candidates in the 2023 general elections, specially mentioned illegal oil bunkering, which had negatively affected the country’s oil production quota.

While calling for proper enforcement of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) to effectively check oil theft in the country, he stated that Nigeria was losing out on natural gas resources due to its inability to harness it like other nations.

“While other countries are getting a lot more resources from oil to develop other sectors of their economy, we don’t seem to benefit from that because we are producing less than what we ought to produce.

“There is the need to ramp up production by dealing with illegal oil bunkering in the Niger Delta through strong community engagement and by ensuring implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act.

“We can also achieve that by ensuring the communities have a buy-in and also work with security agencies to deal with oil theft.

“The gas sector is one sector that we tend to ignore. When we come in next year we will ensure continuation of the gas development plan and that reforms are carried out critically to rake in more resources for the country,” Okowa said.

On subsidy removal, he said PDP administration would be committed to fuel subsidy removal because it was draining resources of the country.

According to him, Nigeria cannot continue to borrow to fund fuel subsidy while other critical sectors are facing inadequate funding.

“Subsidy removal is important because other critical sectors like Education and Health are suffering; so, removing subsidy would free more funds for the development of those sectors which provides critical services to those at the lower rung of the society,” he stated.

ice presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) and governor of Delta, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, has revealed Nigeria is not getting maximum benefit from its oil production because it was hamstrung by high-profile oil theft.

Okowa, who stated this while featuring on Channels Television’s ‘Peoples Townhall’, a special programme for presidential candidates in the 2023 general elections, specially mentioned illegal oil bunkering, which had negatively affected the country’s oil production quota.

While calling for proper enforcement of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) to effectively check oil theft in the country, he stated that Nigeria was losing out on natural gas resources due to its inability to harness it like other nations.

“While other countries are getting a lot more resources from oil to develop other sectors of their economy, we don’t seem to benefit from that because we are producing less than what we ought to produce.

“There is the need to ramp up production by dealing with illegal oil bunkering in the Niger Delta through strong community engagement and by ensuring implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act.

“We can also achieve that by ensuring the communities have a buy-in and also work with security agencies to deal with oil theft.

“The gas sector is one sector that we tend to ignore. When we come in next year we will ensure continuation of the gas development plan and that reforms are carried out critically to rake in more resources for the country,” Okowa said.

On subsidy removal, he said PDP administration would be committed to fuel subsidy removal because it was draining resources of the country.

According to him, Nigeria cannot continue to borrow to fund fuel subsidy while other critical sectors are facing inadequate funding.

“Subsidy removal is important because other critical sectors like Education and Health are suffering; so, removing subsidy would free more funds for the development of those sectors which provides critical services to those at the lower rung of the society,” he stated.