Oil Minister, Defence Partner To Curb Crude Oil Theft, Vandalism

Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, and Chief of Defense Staff (CDS), Gen Christopher Musa, have met to foster collaboration that will boost the fight against crude oil theft and curb pipeline vandalism in the country.

Lokpobiri, while hosting Gen. Musa, who led a military delegation to his office in Abuja, on Thursday, reiterated that the quickest way to solving Nigeria’s economic problems is through oil and gas, adding that this can only be achieved if the country is able to curb the menace of crude oil theft, pipeline vandalism and illegal refining.

He said the drive to ramp up production will not only culminate in increased revenue for Nigeria, it will also address the forex challenge and boost the nation’s economy.

“Today, oil sells for over $90 per barrel, and if we ramp production and reduce the level of oil theft and pipeline vandalisation, we will be able to raise the requisite money to fund not only our budget, take care of our forex problem and then ensure that we stabilise our economy as a country.”

According to him, no country in the world does not prioritise security and investment in its oil assets, be it Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Brazil, US.

He was optimistic that the CDS, who is very familiar with the Niger Delta terrain will address the situation.

“Your appointment is putting a round peg in a round hole because everyone in Bayelsa sees you as a Bayelsan man and there is no creek that you don’t know,” said Lokpobiri.

He said it was incumbent on the military to reduce crude oil theft and pipeline vandalisation to the barest minimum even if they cannot eradicate it.

The minister expressed hope that working together with the military, the country will be able to tackle the crime in order to reap the benefits from the hydrocarbon production.

His words: “As a top military, part of our own objective is to reduce pipeline vandalisation and oil theft to the barest minimum. We cannot completely eliminate it but working with you, together we can reduce it to the barest minimum so that we can benefit from the production of oil and gas.”

He added that the ministry and CDS will still work in partnership with the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) and other agencies to address the menace of illegal refining, crude oil theft and pipeline vandalisation.

According to him, once the nation tackles the crime, it will harness the feedstock (crude oil) needed by the domestic refineries.

He said: “By the time we increase production we will be able to take care of the feedstock needed by Dangote Refinery, Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna refineries, and modular refineries that we have so that we can have full benefit across the entire value chain.”

Speaking earlier on, Musa noted that crude oil being Nigeria’s economic mainstay, deserves all the military support it needs.

He said the military is aware that President Bola Tinubu has mandated the minister to secure the Niger Delta and all other oil fields to ramp up production.

He pledged the support of the armed forces to the oil and gas sector.

The CDS said: “We know all the challenges that we are facing, some of them directly, some indirectly, but to assure you that the Armed Forces of Nigeria are fully in support of you and your ministry and will continue to provide the necessary support to ensure that the country benefits from the God-given resources that we have.”

He added: “Since you came in there has been much improvement in production and a lot of the issues we were having challenges with, the illegal refineries, the pollution of the environment, all these things have gone drastically down and production is going up.

“We want to appeal to all Nigerians to join hands together with you and the security forces to ensure that we secure whatever it is that God has given us.

”If we don’t take advantage of it now we don’t know what will happen tomorrow. The world is dynamic and things are changing very fast.”