Vice President Yemi Osinbajo says tackling crude oil theft and sabotage remains a major concern of the Federal Government, stressing that those in charge must be accountable.

Osinbajo stated that besides economic consequences, institutional and personal reputations are at stake.

The Vice President, however, called on stakeholders in the oil and gas industry to come out with recommendations and solutions that would address oil theft and boost production in the country.

He said this while addressing the Stakeholders Conference on Oil Theft and Loses in Nigeria on Tuesday in Abuja.

Osinbajo said: “All theft and sabotage of oil and gas assets are a clear and present danger to our economy and national security.

“Not only do they pose a serious threat to all exploration and our energy economy, they also impact negatively on what is accrued to the federation and the business prospects on investors in the oil and gas sector.

“If not checked, this will fuel crises that will paralyse government and leave our country extremely vulnerable to all of the shocks and other unexpected consequences.

READ ALSO: NSA: Crude oil theft, biggest threat to Nigeria’s economy

“Large scale theft of crude oil undermine our efforts to optimise the intended vision. Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI) put the audited figure of oil theft and losses at something in the order of 619.7m barrel of crude oil daily.

“And this is valued at $46 billion dollars or N16.25 trillion; and all of these losses occurred between 2010 and 2020.

“In addition, Nigeria lost about 4.2bn litres of petroleum products from refineries which were valued at over 1.4bn dollars at the rate of 140,000 barrel per day from 2009 to 2018.

“This is just an average, because, there are peaks where we see losses between 200 to 400 thousand barrels in a day.

“Institutional and personal reputation are at stake. I think that is the cardinal reason we are here. I employ us to exhaust decision on this matter.

“With the profile of discussants, I hope you will discuss appropriately and come up with recommendations that would profer solutions and achieve the over all objective of this conference.

“I want you to think out of the box and be courageously innovative in proferring your recommendations,” he stated.

Osinbajo further stressed that the total value of crude oil losses between 2009 and 2020 was higher than the size of Nigeria’s foreign reserve at any point in time and also 10 times Nigeria’s savings in our crude account.

The Vice President commended the National Security Adviser, Maj.-Gen. Babagana Mongonu (Retd).

“However, our administration is committed to leaving our best actions, notes and ideas for use by the next administration and better of our nation,” he added.

On his part, Monguno said the presence of Osinbajo clearly demonstrated the resolve and commitment of the Federal Government to address the perennial challenge of oil theft and other related criminalities in the country.

“The initial concerns of oil theft in the country date back to the early 1980s; but in recent times, the situation has developed to a more pronounced and disturbing level.

“This is because the criminals have now increased the level of sophistication considering the various methods they employ to tap primary pipeline with illegal secondary pipelines to load on barges and sell to international collaborators.

“Also they process locally for illicit domestic sale. These attacks on oil producing facilities have led to several shut downs, and in some instances declaration of force majeure by some international oil companies in the country.

“This had resulted in the loss of revenue and by implication negated the capacity of government to generate the required resources to fulfil its statutory responsibilities to the citizenry,” the NSA said.

The Star