As Nigeria’s crude oil production continues to fall below the 1.5mbpd quota allotted by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Ltd has recorded a total of 400 incidents of crude oil theft in the past week.
Those incidents include; illegal refineries, illegal connections, vandalism, oil spills, illegal storage locations and others, the state oil company disclosed in its weekly program tagged “Energy and You”.
According to OPEC monthly oil market report, Nigeria has consistently failed to meet its OPEC+ oil production quota of 1.5 million barrels daily. In May, crude oil production fell to 1.25 million bpd.
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According to the company, there were 165 cases of illegal refineries in the week between the 15th and 21st of June 2024. Also, cases of illegal connection amounted to 69, there were 15 cases of vandalism, 8 incidents of oil spill, 19 cases of illegal storage location, 74 cases of vessel AIS infraction etc.
The NNPC noted that these incidents were reported by different companies and security agencies across the Niger Delta including Tantitta Security Ltd, Pipeline Infrastructure Nigeria Limited (PINL), SPDC, NNPC Command and Control Centre, Maton Engineering, government security agencies and others.
Furthermore, the NNPC reported that the bulk of the 400 incidences recorded during the week occurred in the Western region of Rivers and Bayelsa states with 265 incidences.
This was followed by the deep blue waters off the coast of the Niger Delta which recorded 74 incidences while the Eastern region saw around 65 incidences and the Western Niger Delta saw around 26 cases which mainly occurred in Delta state.
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During the period under review, around 8 suspects were arrested by security agencies and stakeholders in the oil and gas industry.
