The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has asked President Bola Tinubu to deploy more troops to the Niger Delta in a bid to combat the menace of crude oil theft and boost the country’s foreign reserve.
Crude oil theft in the past few years have been at a massive scale leading to shortage in government’s revenues and divestments from oil majors in shallow water fields.
The President of the association, Festus Osifo stated that increase in oil production is the only solution to address problems in the foreign exchange.
Nigeria relies on crude oil sales to meet about 60% of its projected revenues and around 90% of its foreign exchange leading to reduced government’s income and the weakening of the naira.