The Chairman of the National Executive Council (NEC) Committee on Crude Oil Theft and Management, Hope Uzodinma, said Thursday,  ‘there is an end in sight to crude oil theft in Nigeria.”

Uzodinma – the Governor of Imo State, who gave this assurance,  described crude oil theft in Nigeria as a “monster”,  that the menace is particularly worrisome, and tackling it decisively will improve the oil production profile of the country.

Uzodinma , had after a meeting of the Committee in Abuja, also ruled out the importation of crude oil in Nigeria but expressed optimism of an end to it.
He said that the report of the committee, if implemented by NEC will stop crude oil theft in Nigeria.
The committee had during its last meeting in January 2024 developed an action plan and roadmap that would be used to confront crude oil theft head on, and resolved to identify the areas of leakages, likely causes and way forward.

He said, “This is Sub-Committee on National Economic Council and our job is really to look into crude oil theft, and prevention of the theft. Arising from that, we did a lot of fact findings, we made a lot of consultations. We spoke to critical stakeholders and we are beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel.

“It is our hope that at the end of this assignment, we will put together a report that is very bold and courageous that will be useful to NEC, and if implemented, will stop this monster called crude oil theft. Then, our natural resources endowed by God, oil and gas, we will be able to tap into it and develop our country.

“The implications of increasing production and reducing losses is that we will become more solvent, our Naira will also be stronger and access to foreign exchange easy. In consequence of that, the cost of living will come down, and prices will begin to come down, inflation will also begin to reduced.”

“Nigeria Not Importing Crude Oil”

Uzodinma said, “I don’t think and I have never seen it anywhere that Nigeria is going to import or is importing crude oil. Of course, the sector is gradually being deregulated.

In our private refineries, of course under the open market system, private refineries can buy their crude oil from any market, anywhere in the world.
But for Nigeria as a country, currently we are exporting crude oil, I pray that there will be a day when we begin to import crude oil to augment what we have for the purpose of manufacturing and stimulating our economic activities.

“In South Korea, they have 22 refineries, and they don’t produce one barrel of crude oil. All the crude oil they use for processing or for servicing the refineries are all imported and it is defined and developed economy.