Oil thieves cost the Nigerian economy more than $1billion in just a month, the country’s officials have revealed.
Oil sales in the African country dropped 17 per cent – around 400,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day – in the first quarter of 2013 as output was disrupted by theft.
Now officials in the country are to stage a conference as they look to stop the twin problems of oil theft and piracy blighting the country’s economy.
“At average January-March prices of $121 per barrel, this theft resulted in a loss of $1.2billion to Nigeria in one month alone,” said Kingsley Kuku, special adviser to Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan.
Oil theft in Nigeria has become an increasing problem, with the International Energy Authority warning that ongoing disruption in the African country was a factor behind the fall in output of OPEC countries in its most recent industry report.
Earlier this month Shell blamed oil thefts in Nigeria for costing it around $700million in lost revenue, with the company forced to close the Trans Niger Pipeline just days after it had been reopened following a spate of thefts.
In June thieves caused an explosion in the pipeline while trying to fit syphons into pipelines in the country.
Mr Kuku said Nigeria was now looking to stage a conference to ‘eradicate these negative incidences that have been haemorrhaging the nation’s oil resources’.